Karnataka - Bangalore   

Make dialysis affordable: experts

Bangalore: The Dialysis Trust of Karnataka has called for policy initiatives for making dialysis affordable and of proper standards. A dialysis registry of the trust was launched on Sunday by Director-General and Inspector-General of Police K.R. Srinivasan.

Outlining the needs of dialysis patients after renal failure, Chief Medical Officer of the trust Sanjeev Kumar Hiremath said that at present patients undergoing dialysis had to put up with high cost of the procedure. The registry will specify the number of patients undergoing dialysis in the State, which will help the institutions offering dialysis to rationalise the cost.

The trust wanted the government to extend some concessions in form of duty cuts and tax rebate to the institutions that offer dialysis, which could bring down the cost of dialysis. Dr. Hiremath said a person had to undergo dialysis at least thrice a week at a cost of Rs. 1,000 per procedure. With the rebates and tax cuts, the cost could come down by 50 per cent, he said.

According to the details available with the trust, there are a large number of kidney patients in the State and it was time the government extended policy support to the dialysis organisations. The trust was also working towards evolving a “Standard Dialysis Protocol,” which will help the patients to avail themselves of a standard dialysis service in any part of the city and closer to his or her residence.

Dr. Hiremath said the registry would include the addresses and contact numbers of nephrologists, hospitals offering dialysis, emergency services and other facilities. Efforts were also being made with the help of various social security groups to afford funding for financially backward patients, Dr. Hiremath added.

Presenting a paper on “Awareness on kidney diseases,” Rajanna Sridhar said the patients with kidney failure need not despair as it has been proved that they also can continue to lead a normal life with regular dialysis. It was possible to extend the active lives of the people with kidney failure up to 10 years and more depending on the regularity of dialysis. The trust has records to show that 65 patients in the city have undergone dialysis 1,000 times.

The highlight of the launch programme was the presence of 83-year-old freedom fighter Sarojamma, who has completed 800 dialyses. Five nephrologists — H. Sudarshan Ballal, S. Sundar, K.S. Siddaraju, Kishore Phadke and N.C. Talwarkar, were honoured on the occasion.

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