State to work with religious trusts to set up dialysis centres in every district

In order to provide affordable and timely dialysis facilities to patients suffering from kidney failure, the state charity commissioner has planned to set up centres offering this service, with financial assistance from religious trusts in every district.

A senior official said rural Maharashtra has seen a rise in the number of people suffering from renal ailments and not getting treatment on time as there are no dialysis centres in villages and at the district level.

Charity Commissioner Shivkumar Dige said they have prepared a comprehensive plan to set up dialysis centres at state district hospitals. “The situation is severe in rural parts of the state, where people are heavily dependent on state-run dialysis centres. Since the frequency of dialysis can be anywhere from twice a week to once a month, spending Rs 2,000 per procedure at private hospitals is not an option for the poor,” said Dige.

Statistics from the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC) show that only two per cent of all kidney failure patients in Mumbai underwent lifesaving transplant surgeries in 2017. The waiting list of patients with end-stage kidney failure, who need to undergo dialysis until the transplant, has been rising -- from 2,494 (2015) to 3,222 (2016) and 3,271 in 2017.

Nationally, there are around 2,50,000 kidney failure patients, who need dialysis or kidney transplants, but only 7,000 transplants are done annually.

Currently, there are more than 8,000 religious trusts in the state and the charity commissioner has directed all the trusts to set up centres under the guidance of local trust-run or private hospitals at the district level. “We will not force any trust to participate in the initiative. Our intention is to help poor and needy patients,” Dige said.

For the past eight years, Lalbaug Raja Ganesh Mandir Trust in Mumbai has been running a dialysis centre and so far, 96 patients have been benefited. “We welcome the initiative taken by the charity commissioner. This will provide dialysis facilities to thousands of needy patients,” said trust president Sudhir Salvi.