Mahbubnagar: Dialysis centres emerging as life savers for Palamuru patients

Mahbubnagar: The dialysis centres set up by the State government at four district headquarters in Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy and Gadwal districts have been emerging as life savers for the poor suffering from chronic kidney ailments.

In 2015, realising the need for addressing the health issues of kidney patients, the Department of Health, Government of Telangana had decided to set up one dialysis unit in all major districts across Telangana and in this regard it had released Rs 20 crore for setting up the dialysis centres in across 20 districts.

The government had sanctioned Rs 4 crore to the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district and directed the concerned district health authorities to set up four dialysis units with a unit cost of Rs 1 crore each in Gadwal, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool and Mahbubnagar districts.

With this, the kidney patients who were earlier facing tough time to reach corporate hospitals in Hyderabad and Kurnool for dialysis were now a relived lot as they could access the dialysis centres and get treated free of cost. "Earlier, we used to go to Hyderabad twice a month for dialysis and had to shell out at least Rs 10,000 to 15,000 every month. However, now we can get the dialysis done free of cost in Wanaparthy district. Not just for me, there are hundreds of others in our district who have really been benefited by the kind initiative of the State government," said Banavath Narasimha, a kidney patient.

Particularly, the people from Kollapur in Nagarkurnool and some of the surrounding areas from Pebbair and Pangal mandals in Wanaparthy district have been suffering due to kidney malfunction and they have to get the dialysis done twice a month.

For them, the Health department had set up five-bedded dialysis centres each one at the district government hospital in Nagarkurnool and Wanaparthy. However, these two centres are receiving heavy flows and the health department authorities are running the dialysis centres 20 hours-a-day and treating the patients continuously in three shifts. "It takes at least four hours for the dialysis get done. As we are having limited beds at our centre, we are performing dialysis to 15-20 members in a day. But the demand is very high and more than 50-60 patients are getting registered for dialysis," informed Dr Harish Sagar, Superintendent of Wanaparthy District Hospital.

Even in Gadwal district, the health department had set up nine-bedded dialysis centre and it is adequately serving the patients. "We are serving the dialysis patients coming from Alampur, Gadwal, Ieeja and other regions. Earlier, we used to send patients to Kurnool for dialysis. But now, people can freely access the dialysis centre and get the dialysis done at free of cost," said a healthcare staff from Gadwal.

In fact, the first dialysis centre was established in Mahbubnagar district hospital six years ago with just five beds. However, as the demand grew, the dialysis centre has been expanded to 10-bedded centre and providing treatment to about 20-22 patients every day at present. "We are having a capacity to conduct dialysis for at least 30 kidney patients every day," said Dr Ram Kishan, Superintendent of Mahbubnagar Government Hospital.

Meanwhile, some of the leaders from All India Youth Federation (AIYF) in Mahbubnagar are urging the State government to provide Aasara pensions to the kidney patients so that they could get some financial help to overcome their growing healthcare expenses.

Even though the government is providing free dialysis, the patients are incurring other costs like transportation, medicines and others during treatment. In this regard, the AIYF members have demanded the government to extend Aasara pensions to dialysis patients and help them in their need of hour.