Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday released the Union Budget for the current financial year with special emphasis the National Dialysis Service Programme which will be funded through PPP mode to provide dialysis at all district hospitals. The announcement has been welcomed by doctors in the national Capital who said this would help poor patients.
Also, the FM proposed to exempt certain parts of dialysis equipment from basic customs duty, excise or Countervailing Duty (CVD) and Special Additional Duty (SAD).
Dr DS Rana, Secretary General at the Indian Society of Hemodialysis, said, “It is a welcome move. This will help reduce financial suffering of lakhs of patient who cannot afford kidney transplants.”
About 80 per cent of 2.2 lakh new renal patients cannot afford kidney transplant, added Dr Rana, a nephrologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
A large number of patients visit Delhi’s lok Nayak Hospital (lNH) for dialysis every day. Dr Yogesh Kumar Sarin, Medical Superintendent of lNH said, “We get patients from UP, Bihar and other States too. Once, these dialysis centres will be commissioned at all district hospital, patients will not have to suffer as dialysis treatment is not a single day treatment. It takes months.”
Dr KK Aggarwal, Secretary General at Indian Medical Association, said, the opening of centres will reduce kidney related mortality in 2.2 lakh rural patients.
Dr AK Rai, Medical superintendent of Centre run Safdarjung hospital, said the treatment for dialysis has seen ten-fold rise for the last 20 years. “As UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and Odisha do not have enough dialysis treatment centres patients are forced to come to big cities,” he said.