Bir to give dialysis services for Rs 500

KATHMANDU, May 23: Kidney patients can now heave a sigh of relief as the Bir Hospital is planning to provide dialysis service for just Rs 500 within a month.

A total of 12 patients can get the services for free at the hospital now but they have to buy the medicines worth Rs 1,000. But the hospital will provide the medicines at Rs 500 and 52 patients will be benefit from the services after the expansion of the nephrology unit.

“The hospital charges Rs 250 to the patients who can pay now and the rate will remain valid even after the expansion,” Hospital Director Dr Buland Thapa said.

Normally a patient has to pay Rs 2,500 for every session of dialysis. Nursing homes and private medical colleges charge anything between Rs 3,500 and 5,000 for one session. A patient undergoing dialysis has to go to a dialysis center three times a week and get hooked up to a machine for four hours at a time.

Bir Hospital said it has made necessary preparations to provide service at the minimum cost as soon as possible. The hospital has published a notice on Friday for procurement of 10 new dialysis machines. According to Dr Thapa, Tokushukai Group, a Japanese medical organization, is going to provide 10 additional dialysis machines to the hospital.

“We hope to get the 10 Japanese machines within a month,” he said. He said the organization has delayed the consignment of machines due to the recent earthquake and tsunami in the country.

The organization had also provided one-month training in Japan to one medical officer, one medical engineer and two nurses to make them competent in running the dialysis center. Bir Hospital currently has eight dialyses machines in operation but new patients cannot get chance for dialysis. The hospital said a new patient can only get dialysis if the patients getting the service die or get kidney transplants.

“We have already arranged a space to install the additional machines,” Dr Thapa said. He said the hospital will provide dialysis service to 56 patients per day.