KARACHI, Jan 25: The government plans to promulgate the Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs ordinance as soon as possible, said the federal minister for health, M. Naseer Khan, on Saturday afternoon.

A draft is ready which will be vetted by the law division. “Once this law is in place, subject to clearance by the law division, cadaver kidney transplantation will become easy, thereby reducing the burden of dialysis patients,” said Mr Khan.

In his speech at an event during which a multinational pharmaceutical company donated Rs10 million to The Kidney Centre, he said a large population in the country suffered from chronic renal failure.

The treatment of people suffering from this ailment was expensive. “A patient requires regular haemodialysis, which costs, on an average, Rs25,000 to Rs30,000.

“The cost of renal transplantation at the government hospitals is about Rs150,000 and the same at private hospitals is between Rs200,000 and Rs300,000, to be followed by expensive post-transplant treatment costing at least Rs15,000.”

The minister was of the view that the problems in healthcare delivery were too great and that the government alone couldn’t bear the burden. “The government welcomes and encourages the private sector to come forward and share the burden of the government in this regard.”

Mr Khan told all those present that the National Dialysis Scheme, launched by Nawaz Sharif, was abruptly shut down by Gen Musharraf’s military government. The chief executive had then instructed the director general of health division to keep the scheme afloat as long as possible without any further investment in it.

He pointed out that it was because of some pharmaceutical companies’ efforts that the scheme kept floating for considerable length of time. After the scheme’s closure a large number of patients, who had abruptly been deprived of free treatment, were taken care of by the Kidney Centre, with the aid of donations.

One donation, that of Rs20 million, had helped The Kidney Centre take care of hundreds of affected persons, he said.

Later, the country manager of Pfizer handed over a cheque for Rs10 million to the federal health minister. The amount will enable The Kidney Centre to keep the dialysis initiative going for another year.

Hamid Jaffer, Sarfrazul Haq, Maj-Gen (retd) Mohammad Aslam and Marriana Karim also spoke.