Arch Marez Renal Unit soon
The Renal Unit at Tapion hospital is soon to be relocated in a more spacious location that will be named in memory of Arch Marez, the owner of Rodney Bay Marina who died here last year. Marez was instrumental in helping the hospital acquire the unit and pledged future support for it before his death. The unit was opened at Tapion around 1992 when it was operated by Atlantis Health Care based in Canada, as part of a chain of units throughout the Caribbean. Two units were opened simultaneously in Jamaica and St Lucia, followed later by two in Barbados and Puerto Rico.

However, according to Dr Martin Didier, while the units in Barbados and Puerto Rico were very successful the ones in Jamaica and St Lucia were not. Tapion hospital did not think it would have been a good idea to close down the unit so interested persons at the hospital decided they would take it over and buy out Atlantis Services so that patients would continue to be dialyzed in the private sector.

"In addition," added DrDidier, "there was also the element of what we call holiday dialysis which caters to tourists. It is estimated that there are about 400,000 people in North America and a lesser number in Europe who are on dialysis. They would come down on holiday and continue to have their dialysis. This was thought to be a niche market which we had always wanted to attract." Dr Didier said in the meantime, the unit needed to be supported by a local sector, or dialysis population and that had been very slow in building. He said the problem was that private local dialysis was not affordable to many people.

It was here that Marez came in. He recognized the need for such a unit and was instrumental in loaning funds for Tapion to acquire the unit. Dr Didier said Marez himself was able to be dialyzed up to the time of his death last year. In addition, he had also pledged future support for the unit with the donation of an oxygen machine and a vacuum suction machine and had promised to support the unit financially in the future. Dr Didier was full of praise for Marez' gesture and said it was because of it that the decision had been taken to name the unit after him.