PESHAWAR, June 24: The government’s plan to shift the nephrology and urology units of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and nephrology ward of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH)  to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) is poised to severely affect the patients suffering from kidney-related diseases, doctors told Dawn here on Monday.

According to a decision taken at a meeting held on 19th, the 40-bed nephrology and 40-bed urology units of the LRH and nephrology unit of the KTH would be shifted to the HMC and merged with other wards and establish 50-bed Kidney Centre of Excellence there.

The nephrology wards at LRH and KTH are presently being headed by Dr Akhtar Ali and Dr Nisar Anwar respectively, have been treating thousands of patients annually and their merger at the HMC would hit the patients hard, said a doctor.

Initially, a 100-bed kidney centre at the HMC had been planned which is nearing completion but the number of beds have been reduced to 50. Now, the entire population of the province would depend on only two nephrologists, Dr Akhtar Ali and Dr Nisar Anwar because Dr Arbab Nisar has already resigned against the introduction of Institution-based Practice (IBP) in official hospitals.

Had the whole building given to the kidney centre at the HMC, there would have been installed 100 beds but ironically the office of the Dean Postgraduate Medical Institute, which is presently housed adjacent to the Chief Executive’s office of the HMC, would be shifted to the new building, said a doctor.

The patients needing treatment for kidney, bladder, blood pressure, diabetes and kidney transplant need the services of nephrologists but owing to lack of public awareness, these patients are examined by surgeons, physicians and other non- specialists.

According to the doctors, the patients have to suffer a great deal because of the recent decision to merge these three wards. Objections are also being raised at spending Rs 5.5 million on 30-bed nephrology ward, one kidney transplant operation theatre, four isolation rooms and nine dialysis machines at an abandoned building. This has left the patients without any help as the kidney patients need dialysis thrice a week or 12 hours a week for their whole lives with each costing more than Rs 2,000. The patients who were getting treatment at the KTH and LRH, would now visit the HMC which is situated out of the way. Not that but the nephrologists have been asked by the government to attend  the patients at the KTH and LRH even after  the establishment of the nephrology ward at the HMC, which the doctors argue wasn’t possible to visit three hospital in one day.

According to doctors, each district of the province needed at least two dialysis centres so that the patients could be saved from visiting Peshawar every now and then. A patient once diagnosed at a city’s hospital, needed to be treated in his/her home district.

Unlike NWFP, every big and small district in Punjab have got at least one dialysis centre while Karachi has got several centres offering treatment of kidney related ailments. For instance, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant has offering treatment facilities to kidney patients free of charges. The CMH Rawalpindi and Shifa International, Islamabad have also got comprehensive wards, offering facilities to kidney patients.

There are only 15 dialysis machines in government hospitals which is insufficient for 20-million population of the province added by a large number of Afghan refugees, who are also dependent on this province for their health care needs.

Many kidney centres which were funded by the Workers Welfare Board (WWB), have been given to provincial governments in Punjab in Sindh while in Balochistan and NWFP, they would be funded by WWB for the next two years.

The patients also suffered a severe blow following the closure of National Dialysis Programme (NDP) which provided free dialysis facilities to 5,000 patients annually. The programme which cost Rs 100 million annually to the government had been abandoned without any official notification. Ironically, most of the patients who earlier benefited from the NDP, have passed away. According to medical experts, the kidney patients are being provided free kidney dialysis facility worldwide but in Pakistan, the existing facilities are being withdrawn.

The government’s decision of merging the wards, would also cause  blow to the junior doctors wanting to  do specialisation in nephrology.

Lack of community awareness is another problem haunting the patients. The patients face difficulty in consulting the right doctor at the right time.

With the ban on the private medical centre after  the introduction of the IBP, the woes of kidney patients have further multiplied, because the centres treating patients privately had been closed while the government-owned hospitals do not have the required infrastructure to treat all the patients, because only 15 dialysis machines in LRH and KTH cannot cater to the needs of all patients.