Telangana Govt dialysis centres turn boon for poor

Vikarabad: The State government is gearing up to improve the facilities in government hospitals on a par with that of private and corporate. As part of this, dialysis centres have been established to provide free treatment to kidney patients in the 40 district hospitals across the State.

Two dialysis centers in the district, one at Tandur and other at Vikarabad were established last year. These two dialysis centres are being operated for the poor patients of 18 mandals in the district. The eight-bedded unit at Tandur and five-bed unit in the Vikarabad are functioning for this purpose.

More than 50 patients are being treated every day in the district. As many as 84 patients with kidney problems in Tandur and Vikarabad region have registered their names in the units. Almost 579 patients in Tandur and 369 in Vikarabad are being treated every month.

The dialysis centres at government hospitals have become a boon for patients. The measures taken by the State government to provide healthcare to the poor more effectively, have resulted in the government hospitals providing services that were once available only in modern multi-specialty corporate hospitals. Patients who had to travel hundreds of kilometers in the past, are now getting better medical care at their localities now.

The daily wagers had to suffer a lot for spending thousands of rupees for the recurring kidney dialysis treatment at private hospitals. Many of the poor patients had to sell properties and valuables for the treatment. Now, the dialysis centres at government hospitals have come as a boon for the poor kidney patients. Those who have been suffering from kidney diseases are receiving corporate-level treatment for free of cost.

The government spends up to Rs 2,500 for single use injecting system in dialysis treatment. As per the requirement some patients have to undergo treatment twice a week or more. Sometimes a single patient has to undergo 10 to 15 treatments in a month. This is very too expensive to bear by the poor, but now they can avail it for free in government hospitals.

Nearly 10,000 cases of kidney failure in the district were treated in the dialysis centers in the last one year. If cost of treatment for a patient is between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000, the estimation of all cases would be around Rs 25 crore, which was spent by the government in the district.