National Kidney Transplant Institute building. PHOTO from www.nkti.gov.ph
MANILA, Philippines — Dialysis at the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Quezon City is continuous and “running on full throttle” in spite of water service interruptions among Manila Water customers.
This was the assurance of NKTI Department Manager III Dr. Michael Jaro in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net on Friday, as he also revealed that water supply to hospital rooms has also been returned as “water situation has been better.”
Jaro, however, noted that water conservation measures are still in place in NKTI.
“We’re continuously doing dialysis, we’re running on full throttle. Actually, water situation has been better, as of 6 a.m. our cisterns are filled up to 80 percent,” Jaro said.
“We have returned water supply to the rooms, but we are still implementing water austerity measures. So for the meantime, we have resorted to disposable materials, naglagay muna kami ng mga timba and tabo inside CRs,” he added.
Jaro said that while tankers are still bringing water, direct water supply is back in NKTI. But, he also said, this could mean lesser allocations or weaker water pressure for residential areas near the hospital.
“Water is back although some nearby residential areas may receive a lower PSI (pound-force per square inch). Wala tayong magagawa, NKTI needs a lot of water, in fact, it needs twice the requirement of other hospitals such as the (Philippine) Heart Center,” he explained.
On Thursday, it was reported that water levels in NKTI’s cisterns were down to 20 percent, prompting the management to cut off the water supply in rooms, as a way of ensuring that dialysis operations would continue.
READ: NKTI shuts water supply to rooms so as not to jeopardize dialysis ops
NKTI said their hemodialysis units need 100 liters of water per session, which lasts around four hours. The facility has 70 hemodialysis units, operating on four cycles per day.
Jaro said NKTI now implements stricter“peritoneal dialysis (PD) first policy” — a method that uses less water than hemodialysis. According to NKTI Executive Director Rosemarie Liquete, PD is an alternative to hemodialysis as it only consumes about six liters of water per session.
“Yes, we’re fully operational, all 70 units are running. However, new patients are being treated using a PD-first policy, which has also been the case even before the water interruption. Mas strict lang ngayon,” he explained.
READ: NKTI to use dialysis method that uses less water
Officials of Manila Water said water supply situation in its east zone concession may only normalize by May or August, as water levels in the La Mesa Dam continue to drop. On Thursday, the water level at La Mesa Dam reached the 68.74-meter mark, the lowest in 21 years. /kga
RELATED STORIES
Metro water supply shortage until August feared
Manila Water sees possible water supply increase by end of March
La Mesa Dam breaches critical mark, hits 21-year low