KARACHI: The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) will start providing dialysis facilities to kidney patients at its Larkana unit in August.

Part of SIUT’s Chablani Medical Centre in Sukkur, the unit is expected to carry out 100,000 dialysis sessions yearly, catering to the needs of 950 patients.

According to an SIUT spokesperson, the unit has already been equipped with a water purification system while its drainage system, being built by the local government, is in final stages.

“Twelve dialysis machines have reached Larkana, which will be put for testing for two weeks. Monitors required for high dependency unit are being installed while facilities of radiology and pathology are also at final stages,” he said.

The unit would be a functional branch of SIUT Sukkur, which is a fully-fledged hospital with in-patient and outpatient services, operation theatres, 24-hour dialysis facility, lithotripsy and laboratory and radiology services.

The SIUT is the country’s largest public sector dialysis network which caters to the needs of 61 per cent patients residing in Sindh.

“Around 8,000 patients of renal failure benefit from SIUT’s facilities every year. These facilities are located at various satellite units and main hospitals of Karachi and Sukkur where over 394,000 dialysis sessions were conducted last year,” he said.

The cost of a dialysis session ranged between Rs3,000 and Rs5,000 at a private hospital, but it was free of cost at SIUT, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2020