Standalone dialysis centres are on civic body’s agenda

Borivli resident Prashant Shah, who works in a telecom firm, earns well to support his family, but it is not good enough to support his ailing wife Vanita. She suffers from a chronic kidney disease and needs to undergo dialysis twice every week to survive.

The monthly cost of dialysis and medicine runs to more than Rs20,000, Shah informs. Diagnosed with damaged kidneys four years ago, Vanita has already had nearly 450 dialysis sessions.
While the Shahs have managed to get by, there have been cases where patients have taken the extreme step of ending their lives to escape the misery.

There is now a reason to cheer for these families. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to open standalone dialysis centres across the city, where the life-saving treatment can be done at a minimal cost—Rs350 per session.
Tenders for four such centres were floated by the public private partnership (PPP) cell on August 20. The centres will come up on civic plots, including three in the eastern suburbs and one in the western suburbs. Among those in the eastern suburbs, two will be erected inside premises of existing hospitals at Rajawadi in Ghatkopar and Shatabbdi in Govandi, while the third will come up on a maternity centre plot at Mulund’s Nanepada. The fourth centre will come up on a dispensary plot at Jogeshwari’s Millat Nagar.

These will be set up and run on lease by registered private trusts and medical institutions. “We will hand over possession of the built-up land. The private parties will then have to erect and maintain the facility. The lease will be for 30 years, but it will be renewable after every 10 years,” a department engineer said.

Dr Sanjay Oak, director, medical education and health, BMC, said, “The plan was to seek private partnership to overcome resource and manpower crunch for dialysis.”

The BMC, with three centres and 18-odd machines, and a handful of nephrologists, currently entertains only those patients who are listed for a kidney transplant. The resource crunch also leads to higher treatment prices in the private sector and a big waiting list.
“Presently, we have 600 dialysis machines, which can perform up to 10,000 dialysis sessions in a month. The demand is above 40,000,” he said.

The centres in the eastern suburbs will have at least six dialysis machines, while the Jogeshwari centre will have a minimum four. “Once set up in three or four months, these will be able to perform 200 sessions a month,” Oak said.

As against Rs1,200 charged for each session in a private set-up, the centres will charge a nominal fee of Rs350 or even less, Oak said. “The centres will be run on rates prescribed by the corporation,” he added.

Patient names have been changed