Delhi government gets 15 dialysis machines for hospitals, 75 more to follow

Five months after the initial announcement to get 90 dialysis machines for the Delhi government hospitals, in order to help the kidney patients, the first 15 were recently installed in two of the institutes. Another 75 will be installed in the coming month. The machines have been installed under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model.

Five machines have been installed in West Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital and 10 have been given to Outer Delhi's Maharishi Valmiki Hospital. The rest will be installed at Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital (25), Janakpuri Super Speciality Hospital (30), Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital (10), and Madan Mohan Malaviya Hospital (10). Despite the DDU being a bigger hospital, it could not get more machines due to space crunch.

The patients, especially the ones below the poverty line (BPL card holders), will benefit from the new machines as they will be provided with free of cost dialysis. For non-BPL patients, the prices will be subsidised to Rs 1,270 as compared to Rs 4,000 at private institutes.

"Everyone will avail the benefit from this scheme as even the non-BPL patients will pay less than half the market price. The new machines should help those who cannot afford long-term treatment waiting for transplants," said Dr Kirti Bhushan, Director General of Health Services, DGHS.

Before this, there were 60 dialysis machines at three Delhi government hospitals — Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP), Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, and Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan — which were installed in 2013 under the PPP model by the then Congress government and another 15 under the government scheme.

In the 2016-17 Budget, the Union government had announced the National Dialysis Service Programme that aims to provide dialysis services to renal patients in all district hospitals across the country.

Patients with chronic kidney disease need dialysis, a procedure in which a patient is hooked to a machine which is used as an artificial replacement for the lost kidney function. The machine removes waste and excess water from the blood.

Free Of Cost

The patients, especially those below the poverty line, will benefit from the new machines as they will be provided with free dialysis
For non-BPL patients, the prices will be subsidised to Rs 1,270 as compared to Rs 4,000 at private institutes