Hyderabad: Thirty-six per cent of the 13,118 people who received benefits under the Rajiv Gandhi Aarogyasri Scheme for hemodialysis, left after six months as they could not afford the expenses of travel, associated medical conditions, loss of income and caregiver burden, according to a study carried out by United Andhra Pradesh from 2008 to 2012.
The total number of people who received treatment in the four-year period increased from 2.9 crores to 12.2 crores. The study covered 13,118 people from the united state of Andhra Pradesh to understand what barriers they faced in the publicly funded free treatment scheme.
The study assessed the data and tried to track these patients who had left mid-way to understand why the treatment was not completed. It was found that 10 per cent of the patients died and others who did not continue had financial and associated medical reasons, which did not allow them to come to the public health centres for free treatment.
Public funding of dialysis programs was a good beginning as it addressed the poor survival rate of kidney patients and met their unmet medical needs for kidney failure. Professor Vivekanand Jha, executive director of the George Institute for Global Health which carried out the study explained, “The public funding allowed people to access expensive treatment for kidney failure but it has not been able to address all barriers to ensure long term success. The number of beneficiaries increased steadily but the survival rates were sub-optimal and not as significant as expected. This is because the drop-out rate without medical reasons was found to be high.”
In the interaction, it was found that people had problems bearing the cost of transport, cost of caregiver, medical expenses due to the associated medical conditions and also loss of income. The total cost of the treatment was estimated as $ 63.2 million according to the claims of expenses under the scheme during the four-year period.
