Standalone dialysis unit to be set up at CGHS clinic in Delhi

In a first of its kind in the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), a standalone haemodialysis centre will be inaugurated at the Sadiq Nagar CGHS Wellness Centre here tomorrow.

The pioneering public-private partnership (PPP) initiative will be launched by Union Health & Family Welfare Centre Ghulam Nabi Azad.

An official press release said the pilot project would be a testing paid in CGHS before such units are rolled out at the district level under the National Programme for Control of Diabetes.

The pilot project has been set up in collaboration with Alliance Medicorp (India) Limited, Chennai, a joint venture company of Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited, which runs the Apollo Group of Hospitals.

At present, dialysis units in India are set up within hospitals mainly due to a shortage of nephrologists, leading to a scarcity situation. CGHS beneficiaries often suffer hardship for dialysis because demand exceeds the supply by far.

The release said CGHS refers quite a few of its beneficiaries to private empanelled hospitals. In Delhi, around 40-50 patients require dialysis per day. This number is expected to go up in the years to come in view of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension which lead to chronic kidney disease and renal failure.

The public health sector would have to cater to significantly increased demand for dialysis and the Government thinks standlone dialysis units were a possible solution.

In this model, the dialysis unit is not located in a hospital, thus eliminating the need of availability of a nephrologist round the clock as the dialysis station is manned by trained medical and paramedical staff under the overall supervision of nephrologists who ensure quality control as per a laid down protocol.

A space of 2400 sq. ft. of covered area has been renovated to suit the requirements for providing state-of-art dialysis facility at the centre. It will have the capacity to dialyze up to 21 cases of chronic renal failure per day with seven functional dialysis machines (and an additional stand-by machine) and shall be operational from 7 A.M. to 8 P.M. for 310 days in a year. If maximally utilized it shall be able to undertake 6510 dialysis per year, the release added.

NNN