September 19, 2014
New Dialysis Units in 34 state hospitals
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee promised that the general public will soon be able to avail the service of Fair Price Diagnostic Centers and other much-needed facilities in Government hospitals. Keeping tally to the promise, Dialysis Units on PPP models are being installed in phases in state-run hospitals. Earlier renal failure patients had to wait days for dialysis as only three government hospitals were equipped with the facility.
More than one lakh patients in the state need dialysis at regular intervals. The nephrology unit at SSKM Hospital, the biggest unit, has 15 machines, R G Kar Medical College and Hospital has six and NRS Medical College and Hospital has four. With another 19 dialysis beds in district hospitals, the number of 44 such machines was small to cater to the number of patients. Though private hospitals have around 400 dialysis machines, few can afford them.
The health department took up the project of setting up these PPP model centres to solve the problem. At present eight such centres have become operational, including Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital. Beliaghata ID Hospital and M R Bangur Hospital. Ten machines have been installed in each of these hospitals and they have become operational. In all, 34 hospitals will have dialysis centres. The idea was to ensure that patients would not have to move beyond 10-15km for dialysis facilities.
