Demand for pension to dialysis patients grows in TS

Hyderabad: It's not just dengue and malaria that is causing worry for people in Telangana. That is nothing as compared to the severity of kidney-related diseases which has resulted in huge demand for dialysis.

This issue got highlighted during the question hour on Friday in the state Assembly as several members, including many from the ruling TRS party demanded the government to introduce pension scheme for those who were undergoing dialysis.

The seriousness of the situation was endorsed even by Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy who remarked that the disease was because of the borewell water and polluted water. He asked the MLAs to speed up the Mission Bhagiratha works so that families get safe drinking water.

In fact, this issue made the members turn emotional in the House. Government Whip G Sunitha could not control her tears narrating the pain her family had undergone.

Sunita said that she knows the pain of the families whose kin suffer with kidney disease. "My father also was dialysis patient for 14 years. I know how it has affected our family economically.

My only request to the government is to provide Asara pensions to dialysis patients on the lines of AIDS and filarial patients," said Sunitha, who could not control her tears.

She also narrated how a 24-year-old youth with dialysis problem pleaded her to help financially. Not just that there are children who are much younger also who are getting affected, she said.

TRS member B Ganesh Gupta said that the kidney disease has become a common problem these days and it is root cause for several other diseases.

Another TRS member Kancharla Bhupal Reddy, Jagtial MLA M Sanjay Kumar, Ramagundam MLA K Chander, Bhongir MLA P Shekhar Reddy pointed out there was shortage of dialysis machines at various centres in the districts. Over 50 patients wait in the queue.

MIM member Ahmed Pasha Quadri demanded the government to provide dialysis centre in constituencies represented by their party. MLA K Chander urged the government to provide Asara pensions to the kidney patients.

Health Minister E Rajender said that he would take the issue to the notice of the chief minister as he too had witnessed the suffering of people in hospitals. He said that there were 43 centres in Telangana with 270 machines.

Each machine can do dialysis to four patients per day. The government had included dialysis in Aarogyasri because patients will have to come ten times in a month and on an average the family of the patient spends Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh per year.

He said that the patients were given free bus passes by the government.