Cape Verde: New work on hemodialysis center in Cape Verde with Portuguese support begins

Praia – The construction of the new hemodialysis center in Mindelo, in Cape Verde, which has the financial support of Portugal, begins Tuesday and aims to provide treatments for kidney patients, which are increasing in the country.

The announcement was made by the Cape Verdean Minister of Health, Arlindo do Rosário, and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal, Teresa Ribeiro, who today approved the cooperation protocol for the implementation of the hemodialysis at Dr. Baptista de Sousa Hospital in Mindelo.

At the end of the ceremony, Teresa Ribeiro told reporters that “the health area is a privileged area of cooperation between Portugal and Cape Verde.”

“We have been working in a very large diversity of fields, in areas such as oncology, primary care, medicines. There is a network of interventions here that have been implemented in the framework of our Strategic Cooperation Program, “he said, classifying the protocol now approved as” one more step, an important step. ”

By 2017, Portugal and Cape Verde had signed a protocol through which Portuguese cooperation allocated 400,000 euros for the construction of this center. Cape Verde then requested a reinforcement of the amount, which now totals 480 thousand euros, included in the documents signed today.

Teresa Ribeiro, who began a visit to three Cape Verdean islands on Tuesday, said that starting Tuesday, “the count of the time for the end of the work”, scheduled for early summer.

Currently, there is a hemodialysis center in Cape Verde, at Dr. Agostinho Neto Hospital, in the city of Praia, also co-financed by Portuguese cooperation.

This center, which began operating in 2014, reached the breaking point in patient care in 2018, currently treating 140 people who need hemodialysis.

The new center in Mindelo has 23 dialysis units and will treat up to 150 patients.

According to the Cape Verdean Minister of Health, the existence of these two centers in Cape Verde will allow a responsiveness capable of avoiding the movement of patients abroad, namely to Portugal.

The minister said, however, that the answer in the field of nephrology is not just through hemodialysis.

“There is a need to look at a number of things, particularly at the level of primary health care, for the monitoring of the renal patient leading to a reduction in cases requiring hemodialysis,” he said.

In this area, he said, Cape Verde can count on the help of Portugal, an affirmation with which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal agreed.

For the new center, Portugal’s help will also be extended to staff training, which has proved to be “fundamental” in recent years, not only in the area of nephrology.

“Portugal will always be available for this training, which will give the center all the skills the center will need,” said Teresa Ribeiro.

On Wednesday, the Portuguese secretary of state will be on the island of São Vicente, where she will visit Dr. Baptista de Sousa Hospital in Mindelo, as well as the land where the new hemodialysis center will be built.