LARKANA: The dialysis unit at Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) having 20 machines has been lying shut for five days rendering several hundred patients helpless. The hospital administration had to close down the unit after its reverse osmosis (RO) plant stopped functioning.

The unit provides dialysis facility to a large number of patients every day. They regularly come to this tertiary hospital not only from different areas of Larkana division but also from Punjab and Balochistan.

CMCH medical superintendent Dr Irshad Hussain Kazmi late on Thursday night confirmed to Dawn the total closure of the unit. He also revealed that only 10 dialysis machines were operational when the unit was closed. Regarding the other 10 machines, he said they had been installed recently and were yet to be put into operation.

Sources at the unit said on Friday that despite repeatedly writing to and approaching Dr Kazmi, things had remained unchanged so far.

Out of order RO plants cause suspension of essentially required health services

The nephrology department’s head Dr Ghulam Abbas Qadri has written four letters to the MS over the last five days concerning the situation.

In his latest letter, dated March 26, Dr Qadri reminded the MS that the dialysis process at the unit had been completely shut down due to unavailability of supply from the RO plant to the main hall for HIV, hepatitis and dialysis machines. If the issue remained unresolved, this might lead to a law and order situation, he apprehended.

He requested the MS to arrange for the repair and restoration of all three RO plants on an urgent basis in order to ensure resumption of essentially required health services.

Speaking to Dawn, Dr Qadri said that if all the three plants comprising 10 machines were put in full operation, more than 60 patients could be put on dialysis daily, in three-four shifts.

He said the dialysis unit received patients from Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Kashmore, Badah, Usta Mohammad, Khuzdar, Warah, Dokri, Shahdadkot, Naseerabad and other towns as well as their surrounding areas.

Dr Qadri expressed his sheer disappointment over inaction on his letter, saying that it was a matter of life and death for dialysis patients.

About condition of the older RO plants, he said one of them had almost turned obsolete and was not expected to continue functioning well if it got repaired. Therefore, it’s better to replace it with a new one. A team of technicians from Sukkur had examined it recently and had given same advice to the MS, he added.

He has sent copies of his letters to the Larkana district and sessions judge, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University vice chancellor, dean of medicine and Chandka Medical College principal.

Dr Zahid Shaikh, a former head of the nephrology department, told this writer on Friday that Dr Qadri had started writing to the MS since Saturday last for the early remedial measures but in vain. He said mere change of filters or membranes of RO plants would not work as it would provide a temporary solution.

On his part, MS Dr Irshad Kazmi said “we are trying to restore the dialysis process and are in touch with the company that had installed the machines”.

When asked how much time it would require to put the system in operation, he replied: “To be on safe side, it would take one week or so”.

Since the dialysis unit’s closure, patients are being referred to other health facilities, according to sources.

“Miseries of the patients are multiplying day in and day out,” said Dr Qadri.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2020