DaVita, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners that provides kidney care services, has won a tender to treat half of the 10,000 dialysis patients currently under the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health’s care.
 
Under the award, DaVita will operate as many as 80 centres and will undertake a recruitment effort to attract new clinical and administrative teammates from within Saudi Arabia and across the world, said a statement.

Kent Thiry, co-chairman and CEO of DaVita, said: "This is another important step in our vision for expanding our kidney care services internationally. It is an honour for DaVita to work with the Ministry of Health to deliver high-quality kidney care to its patients."

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease in Saudi Arabia has accelerated over the past three decades due largely to changing lifestyles, population growth, urbanisation and longer life expectancies, he said.

Bjorn Englund, president of DaVita – Middle East and Europe, said: "DaVita stands in partnership with the ministry in addressing this issue. We bring a number of industry-leading programmes including vascular access management and an innovative vascular access training programme for nephrologists.”

DaVita will also be a prime resource to the ministry in identifying ways to prevent kidney disease within Saudi Arabia. - TradeArabia News Service