Ashok Kumar/OneWorld South Asia

Patna/Bhagalpur: In its bid to move towards making the health services more affordable in Bihar, camps for dialysis sessions catering to kidney patients are being organised in the state.

The special camps being organised from August 4-8, 2015, at Hemo Dialysis Centres (HDCs) will provide dialysis sessions at half the market rates with the facilities to be available in 13 district hospitals and four medical colleges located in seventeen districts.

To provide quality hemo- dialysis services at affordable cost, government district hospital and medical colleges are providing round-the-clock HDCs at 17 locations across the state in partnership with B Braun-India, a subsidiary of German company.

The HDC initiative is said to be the first of its kind Public Private Partnership (PPP) for providing low cost services to kidney patients in Bihar. Patients registered during these five days would be getting lifetime dialysis services at government approved rates.

The State Health Society, Bihar and Bihar Technical Assistance Support Team (BTAST) are providing technical assistance to these centres in the form of identification of private partner for running the dialysis centres. BTAST is an initiative of Bihar Government supported by DFID-UK to implement the Sector Wide Approach to Strengthen Health (SWASTH) in Bihar.

BTAST is also supporting the project in conducting special health camps to attract kidney patients and link existing patients to these centres. According to the incidence rate of end-stage renal disease in Bihar, there are more than 22,000 patients who are suffering from kidney related ailments.

Dr R C Mandal, Superintendent, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur, said that these camps would lead to greater awareness among people about the renal diseases.

According to Sandeep Kumar from BTAST, the availability of low cost dialysis sessions will result in longer life of people suffering from kidney ailments.

“Repeated dialysis sessions result into a family being pushed below the poverty line. Generally, a dialysis session costs around Rs 3000 while these centres would provide the same service for approximately Rs 1500. Not just that, the patients would also avoid the pain of travelling away from their homes in search of better medical facilities,” Kumar explained.

The centres are being run by B Braun with support from State Health Society, Bihar.

...