The Artificial Kidney Unit (AKU) of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is refuting claims of an increased number of deaths, that are being made in a social media post.
The QEH issued the following statement in response:
It has been brought to our attention that information making the rounds on social media indicates that a higher than usual number of dialysis patients have demised in recent days in light of a high number of non-working dialysis machines. On behalf of the Doctors, Nurses, support staff and patients of the Artificial Kidney Unit (AKU), the Queen Elizabeth Hospital definitively refutes this baseless allegation.
For context, the AKU, also known as the Dialysis Unit, welcomes 66 patients with end-stage renal disease requiring life-saving haemodialysis per day, six days per week, and has a complement of 24 working Dialysis Machines. Twenty-two of these are in use daily, and two back-up machines remain working and ready for immediate use should the need arise.
It has been confirmed that there has been no need for the back-up machines to be cycled into use in recent times as there have been zero machine failures.
The unit follows and adheres to all international maintenance standards, Infection Prevention and Control guidelines as well as Quality Standards on water testing, high level disinfection and more. This is corroborated by the fact that for the month of June, there is no evidence to date from laboratory tests to show contamination within the department.
Management has also confirmed that for 2023, all scheduled daily, weekly, monthly and annual regular to high-level deep cleaning has been executed in full and on time.
Operations on the unit continue as outlined above maintaining all standards of care, maintenance and infection prevention and control. (PR/SAT)
