Kidney disease hitting SA hard

CHRONIC kidney disease is fast becoming unaffordable to treat, with about 50000 patients suffering kidney failure in South Africa and claims for dialysis running into the millions. This is according to Dr Errol Gottlich, clinical specialist and health executive at Discovery Health, who spoke to the Herald yesterday, on the eve of World Kidney Day. "This is true for both the private and public sectors. Kidney failure is an excessively expensive condition to treat," he said. In the Eastern Cape alone a single medical aid, Discovery, received R4.6-million in claims for 212 patients with kidney failure in the first 10 months of last year. The claims for 16 other kidney conditions up to October last year totalled R282198. -