NKF to open more dialysis centres to meet rising demand

Five centres to open by 2025 as new cases of kidney failure increase by 42% over a decade

- Joyce Teo

Singapore’s biggest dialysis provider, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), will open five new dialysis centres by 2025 to meet escalating demand as kidney failure cases rise.

Now, all 41 dialysis centres across Singapore are running at close to 90 per cent capacity, with slots set aside for emergency cases or patients who have to be isolated, such as those with hepatitis B virus infections, its chief executive Tim Oei told The Straits Times. 

Mr Oei said NKF receives more than 100 new applications for dialysis slots every month, which is about double the number from five years ago, when it had 36 dialysis centres. 

“It is worrying. The numbers are slowly but surely moving upwards,” he said.

This is happening as six new patients are diagnosed with kidney failure in Singapore every day.

Dialysis removes waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys stop working properly. Without dialysis or an organ transplant, these patients will ultimately die.

In January 2024, NKF will open a dialysis centre – long delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic – at the Sky Vista @ Bukit Batok Housing Board project. This will replace a small centre nearby.

By May 2024, another centre will open at Sengkang Community Hospital.

This will be the second dialysis centre co-located in a community hospital, following the one in Yishun Community Hospital. Patients at the hospital have found it very useful, as they need not travel to a dialysis centre by ambulance, Mr Oei said. 

The next three dialysis centres will open by 2025 in the HDB estates of Bidadari, Fernvale in Sengkang, and Punggol, taking the total number of NKF centres to 45.