Kidney treatment: Balochistan lags behind in providing free dialysis

Provinces submit report in SC on steps taken to provide the facility

ISLAMABAD:

The provincial governments’ reports, submitted in the apex court to highlight the steps taken to provide free dialysis facility to kidney patients, reveal that Balochistan lags far behind other provinces in providing medical facilities to patients suffering from acute renal failure (ARF). 

Hearing a six-year-old constitutional petition filed by Tariq Asad advocate, who sought restoration of free treatment for kidney patients, the Supreme Court had asked the provinces to submit reports with regard to facilities provided to such patients.

The petitioner contended that in 1999, the federal government had announced free dialysis facility to ARF patients. However, the facility was suspended following the toppling of government by then army chief General Pervez Musharraf.

Sharing details, the Balochistan government told the court that a Kidney Centre was constructed in Quetta through welfare fund and was handed over to Balochistan’s Workers Welfare Board in 2002.

The centre was later handed over to Fatimid Foundation in 2006 for a period of 30 years under an MOU.  However, as the centre was not providing proper facilities to patients, the high court intervened and directed the health department to take over management of the centre.

Report said the Balochistan health department had now planned to convert the centre into a full-fledged nephrology and urology institute, named Balochistan Institute of Nephrology and Urology Quetta (BINUQ).

The goal of the project is to develop international level services in the area of renal diseases including renal transplantation. The headquarters of the BINUQ will be located in the existing Kidney Centre, the report said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government told the apex court that its health department was providing free dialysis service to 1,204 patients in the province. The K-P’s secretary health department said the provincial government, apart from the normal budget, had also allocated a sum of Rs75million for free dialysis and Rs100 million for free kidney transplantation under the chief minister’s special fund.

It said Punjab government had also established a medical facility, Nawaz Sharif Kidney Hospital, in district Swat where kidney transplant facility will be provided to the ARF patients. The project has almost completed and will start functioning soon. Free service will also be provided to 30-35 patients per day.

The report said the K-P government is determined to provide free of cost dialysis facility to the ARF patients. Four dialysis machines will become functional in different districts in near future, it said.

In his report, Sindh’s health department secretary said there are 31 heath facilities in the province where dialysis is done free of cost. It said few NGOs are also supporting the free of cost dialysis system.

The report said dialysis is not being provided at the Civil Hospital Karachi but at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) there are 125 dialyses machines, which conduct dialysis round the clock. It said the SIUT provides dialysis to around 230,000 patients every year.

Earlier, Punjab’s Additional Advocate General (AAG) Razaq A Mirza submitted a report, stating that the chief minister has already taken an initiative to provide free dialysis facilities at all districts of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2015.