Second District Rep. Aristotle Aumentado has filed a bill seeking the establishment of a National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) in Bohol and Davao City to expand the institution’s services to Visayas and Mindanao.

In filing House Bill No. 5261, Aumentado noted that the NKTI in Quezon City so far is the only government hospital which specializes in renal diseases and organ transplantation, servicing patients nationwide.

“Patients from these geographical areas [Visayas and Mindanao] will really benefit from the establishment of these hospital facilities as they will not be burdened with the additional expenses when they presently seek treatment at the principal office of NKTI in Quezon City,” he said.

The bill seeks to amend the Charter of the NKTI, which has a three-pronged purpose—service, training and research primarily for the benefit of Filipinos afflicted with kidney and related diseases.

According to Aumentado who is the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on science and technology, renal diseases, particularly end-stage renal disease, are the seventh leading causes of death among Filipinos.

“One Filipino develops chronic renal failure every hour or about 120 Filipinos per million population per year or about 10,000 Filipinos each year,” Aumentado said.

“More than 5,000 Filipino patients are presently undergoing dialysis and approximately 1.1 million people worldwide are on renal replacement therapy,” he added.

The establishment of NKTI centers in Bohol and Davao is also seen to ease congestion in the existing facility in Quezon City.

“In this manner, NKTI’s services will be available to all Filipinos in the countrywide since it will be located strategically and the for the purpose of decongesting people who may have come from the different areas of the country,” Aumentado added.

The bill has been referred to the House of Representative’s committee on health and is now awaiting the panel’s approval.