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2006 has been a full year under the purview
of the new NKF¡¯s Board of Directors, who took office in July 2005. |
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It has been a year that saw, amongst other
things, multiple improvements in its services towards kidney patients,
including a reduction in its charge for dialysis. |
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With the new NKF offering one of the most
affordable dialysis services in Singapore, a growing number of people
are turning to it for help. |
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Its haemodialysis programme has crossed the
2,000 mark and currently has 2002 patients, an increase of 129 patients
(6.8%) since December 2005. |
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To ensure that it has sufficient capacity to
cater to the increasing number of patients who require dialysis, the new
NKF opened a new Dialysis Centre in Woodlands in September 2006, the
22nd dialysis centre in its network. |
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Two more Centres are in the process of being
built in Ang Mo Kio and Hougang and they are expected to be operational
by the first and fourth quarter of next year respectively. |
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With the addition of these two Centres, NKF
will have an additional capacity for 216 patients. The new NKF will
continue to admit needy kidney patients into its dialysis programme and
with its new subsidy policy, admission will be based on equitable and
transparent criteria. |
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Besides providing quality medical care for
its patients, the new NKF has been intensifying its holistic approach to
patient care by paying much more attention to the psycho social health
of its kidney patients. |
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Trained medical social workers have been
hired to better understand the various needs of our patients, provide
counselling, conduct group therapy as well as self-help sessions.
Complementing this is NKF¡¯s newly launched volunteer initiative known
the Befrienders Programme. |
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The new NKF has also performed well
financially in 2006. Although its two core programmes ¨Cdialysis
and prevention & education- had been running at a loss of $3.5m
and $1.6m respectively as at September 2006, other income streams
have compensated for this loss. |
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The NKF had net donations of $9.2m,
investment income of $7.2m as well as a one-off exceptional income
from the sale of donated properties of $2.5m. There is a surplus
of $13.8m, which has also been the result of tight cost management
with the biggest savings in manpower costs of $4.2 million. |
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The new NKF is therefore pleased to
announce that it will, with effect from January 2007, reduce its
dialysis charge from its current $150 per session (or $1,950 per
month) to $140 per session ($1,820 per month). |
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With this reduction, 77% of its
current patients will enjoy a reduction in their dialysis
co-payment by an average of 12%. Currently, 75% of NKF¡¯s patients
receive highly subsidized dialysis treatments, paying $400 or less
per month as their co-payment. |
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With the new dialysis charge, the
number of patients paying $400 or less per month will increase to
80%. This means that these patients pay only $31 per session or
less. |
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More..... (THE NEW NKF: 2006 REPORT CARD) |
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Source:
www.nkfs.org Press Release 22
Dec 2006 |
The new NKF'S progress report 2006
