Health Minister Rosy Akbar has made it clear that the Government cannot provide kidney dialy­sis for free and that people should learn to live a healthy lifestyle.

She made this statement while addressing the Nadroga Sangam Masters Wine & Dine at Outrigger Fiji Beach Re­sort on Saturday night.

Despite it being an expensive treatment, Ms Akbar said the Government was working hard and putting in all its resources to make it affordable to people who needed treatment.

“There is no country in the world where kidney dialysis is free. It has become a political issue for us not providing free kidney dialysis, let me tell you a fact about kidney dialysis that it’s not going to save you,” she added,

Ms Akbar said the cost of this treatment was very ex­pensive and could have an impact on the patients them­selves.

“It’s very costly , $250 per session and doctors will rec­ommend that a patient do three sessions per week but the problem is a lot of Fijians don’t even earn $750 a week, this is why prevention is better, stop taking too much al­cohol and other unhealthy lifestyle habits,” she added.

Ms Akbar said another option was a kidney transplant. which was expensive and that people could only get that overseas.

“A lot of people are setting up dialysis centres in Fiji because there is a lot of money in that. The fact is nobody wants to die so we urge them to be serious about their health which should start from home,” the Health Min­ister said.

“People have been asking to open it for free, look no country has free dialysis, one of the solutions is early interventions and burn those extra calories. For kidney dialysis as long you are throwing money into it you will survive

“We have cases coming to us where a three-year-old and an 11-year-old need kidney transplant, at the moment an­other child is undergoing kidney dialysis,” she added.

Ms Akbar said that their fight against Non-Communica­ble Diseases have fallen on deaf ears.

Edited by Percy Kean