Diaverum implements Renal Care Services provision contract in Saudi Arabia

Munich / Riyadh, 18 November, 2014 – Diaverum, one of the leading renal care providers worldwide, today officially launched the Renal Care Services provision project and inaugurated the Renal Care Center in the Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital in Riyadh. The event marks a key milestone within the contract with the Ministry of Health for providing dialysis services for 5,000 patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During the last few months Diaverum has already opened two additional centers in Jeddah and Onezah. The Riyadh launch took place under the auspices of HE Eng. Adel Fakieh, Acting Minister of Health, Saudi Arabia.

At the launch of the project and the Renal Care Center inauguration, Ziyad Kabli, Managing Director of Diaverum Saudi Arabia, said that “we are honoured by the trust that the Ministry of Health is putting in Diaverum, in our competencies and experience. By opening the Renal Care Center at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital today, we are showing that we deliver on what we promised.”

The dialysis unit in the Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Hospital has a capacity for 200 dialysis patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. It is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and provides the highest medical quality in a warm and friendly atmosphere. As in all Diaverum kidney centres, it reflects the core values of the company: competent, inspiring and passionate and with the company’s Scandinavian roots, forming positive optimism and a family feel. The key aim is to avoid the ‘cold’ hospital feel and instead create a warm environment, providing patients with a revitalising experience in addition to world class medical outcomes.

To face the rising demand for healthcare services, especially in one of the most advanced renal care systems in the world today, the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decided to drive private sector participation with international support and signed an agreement earlier this year with Diaverum Saudi Arabia. The aim is to provide high-quality health services to citizens in all regions and governorates of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Diaverum will invest to further improve the existing infrastructure, as well as develop additional capacity, with a goal to improve medical outcomes and to secure patient satisfaction. After all stages of implementation, Diaverum will operatearound 90 kidney centres across the Kingdom, and care for more than 5,000 patients.

Integration Nurses

In Saudi Arabia, as in all new markets, Diaverum is working with the concept of Integration Nurses. Experienced Diaverum nurses from well-established markets transfer for a certain period of time to a newly entered market to train the local staff according to the Diaverum standards, to ensure the smooth adoption of clinical processes and to support the teams.

“We highly appreciate the commitment and assistance of the Integration Nurses,” said Ziyad Kabli. “In our particular situation, where we are hiring and training hundreds of new employees in a short period of time, their support is indispensable.”

On a global level, Diaverum also benefits from the local employment of the Integration Nurses as they learn about the new market and feed these experiences back to the international organisation.

The healthcare market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest-growing healthcare markets worldwide and is estimated to grow approximately 10 per cent in 2015. Key challenges are a growing and ageing population, and an increase in the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

Globally, by 2025, it is estimated that 380 million people worldwide will suffer from diabetes and 1.56 billion people will have high blood pressure. Both illnesses are key reasons for the onset of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Today, more than 5 per cent of the world’s adult population suffers from some type of kidney injury or CKD; in Europe the prevalence is around 8 per cent. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, more than 10,000 patients suffer from end stage kidney disease and require renal replacement therapy..

Receiving dialysis treatment requires a complete change of life for patients. Apart from best medical treatment, renal patients require the flexibility and freedom to be able to live a normal life with as little ‘wasted time’ as possible, spending as little time as possible in hospitals to accomplish a sense of normality in their lives.

“Our aim is to provide dialysis services while developing an integrated approach to renal care jointly with the Ministry of Health,” said Dag Andersson, Chief Executive Officer and President of Diaverum. “We will offer additional services, such as vascular access, and coordinate care around the renal patient to improve their quality of life. Integrated renal patient care comprises measures to seek better ways for early diagnosis and treatment and will be essential in treating the growing number of renal patients in Saudi Arabia, both socio-economically and medically.”

One such service is holiday dialysis, i.e. the possibility for renal patients to travel abroad to any of the 300 Diaverum kidney centres worldwide and receive the same high standard treatment that they are used to in their home clinics.