KOCHI: With the incidence of chronic renal failure and the need for dialysis going up, the question of affordable facilities has become a key concern in the health sector. It is estimated that not even five per cent of those in need of dialysis can afford it. They are affected by diabetes and hypertension too.
At present there are 60 centres in Kerala offering haemodialysis. More than one lakh dialysis are done every year in Kerala, each costing Rs 1,000-2,000 or more. Most of the patients who cannot afford the same succumb to the disease years earlier.
In this scenario, five years ago the Regional Dialysis Centre came up at Aluva District Hospital and after five years, it has crossed a milestone of conducting more than 50,000 quality dialysis to the satisfaction of the patients and the nephrologists.
“More importantly at the Aluva dialysis centre, the patient is charged only '200 per dialysis (all inclusive). The generous help of Rs 500 per dialysis for the poor extended by the prime partner Cochin Shipyard was the mainstay of the project in the beginning,” says Dr N. Vijayakumar, former medical superintendent of Aluva District Hospital, who conceived the project.
Former MP Mr P. Rajeev is the driving force behind the project, who gave Rs 43 lakh for the project from the MP’s fund apart from getting sponsors and government sanction for it. Dr Joseph K. Joseph, nephrologist, Little Flower Hospital, Angamaly visits the centre on Saturday afternoons to review the cases, free of cost.
“For a patient of chronic renal disease the treatment of choice is kidney transplantation. In Kerala the surgery is undertaken in 12 centres and yearly more than 250 transplantations are being done there. The difficulty in getting matching donors and the prohibitive cost of the surgery and the postoperative treatment are major hurdles in this path,” says Dr Vijayakumar.
A total of seven patients from the centre have got transplants and are getting post transplant medications at half the rate. The centre has helped patients get support from the PM’s and CM’s Relief Funds and the support from various schemes.
