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STAFF REPORTER
UNIVERSITY of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Clinical Medicine has partnered with an international outreach project known as the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Institute. Located at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, USA) and ECHO India, the project aims to strengthen its reach to healthcare professionals in peripheral hospital sites in KwaZulu-Natal.
Recently, the Adult and Paediatric Nephrology Outreach Programme was launched at UKZN’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.
ECHO Project Manager at UKZN, Dr Serela Ramklass, said: “We are excited to partner with the ECHO Institute and ECHO India that facilitates the link between primary care clinicians at hospitals across the province with specialist faculty from the School of Clinical Medicine.
Collectively, we can improve patients’ health outcomes and quality of life at peripheral sites through shared knowledge on patient assessment and management through mentoring and feedback.”
Team leader for the Adult and Paediatric Nephrology UKZN-ECHO Programme, Associate Professor Rajendra Bhimma, said: “We will focus on nephrology conditions (both in paediatrics and adults) which are most common in our region.
The general discussions will allow all regional and district hospitals to participate. The project will deal with clinical cases presented by doctors either at central or peripheral hospitals and will be followed by a clinicopathological discussion around the case.”
Head of UKZN and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital Nephrology, Dr Sudesh Hariparshad, noted how South Africa has one nephrologist for a population of 2.5 million.
“It is important to note that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in its early stages is a silent disease and may only become apparent when more than 50 percent of the function of the kidneys is lost. Therefore, patients must be screened, managed and referred appropriately at primary healthcare levels.”
Academic Leader of Medical Registrars at UKZN and Head of the Clinical Unit of Paediatrics at the King Edward VIII Hospital, Dr Kimesh Naidoo, presented on Glomerulonephritis (GN). Naidoo highlighted a case study of an eleven-year-old patient who presented at a local clinic with ‘coke-like’ or ‘tea-coloured’ urine, a slight headache and no health issues at school.
He was discharged but presented a week later with mild pedal oedema, high blood pressure (BP), and macroscopic haematuria, which was diagnosed as nephritis.
“The need to determine when such cases require referral to specialists and sub-specialist levels of care with most cases of nephritis can be adequately managed at primary health care levels,” said Naidoo.
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