LARKANA: The Chandka Medical College Hospital has suspended dialysis service for kidney patients for past three days as the dialysis machines at the hospital’s nephrology department have ground to a halt after having developed faults in a vital component called dialyser.

Sources in the department told Dawn on Friday that ultimate sufferers were the 50 kidney patients, on an average, who travelled daily from different parts of Larkana division and Balochistan to undergo the essential procedure.

A patient from Ratodero who was waiting for his turn at the hospital said that he had been visiting the department for the past three days and had to return without having dialysis. “I am not only a kidney patient who is in dire need of dialysis but also a patient of cardiac diseases that have complicated my condition,” he said.

Assistant Prof Dr Ghulam Abbas Qadri, in-charge of the nephrology department, said that dialyser was not available in the department and it was impossible to do dialysis without this component. If the situation did not change it would double patients’ load within next few days, he said.

In 24 hours, around 50 to 60 patients were put on dialysis, said a technician. “We face very difficult situation when machines suddenly stop working because the patients’ attendants more often fail to understand and quarrel with doctors and paramedics on duty,” he said.

A staffer in the dialysis unit said that the hospital’s main store declined to provide 600 dialysers when they sent request on Thursday and received the reply that the component’s stock had exhausted.

Dr Gul Shaikh, in-charge of the main store at CMCH, confirmed lack of dialysers at the store. The dialysers were bought from local purchase funds as the hospital was not receiving this item from the main store for two years, said a source in the store.

The nephrology department frequently faced a variety of issues like faults in reverse osmosis system and motors providing water and unavailability of ‘membranes’ used in the filtration of underground source of water before it was supplied to the dialysis machines.

“Sometimes the RO system shuts due to choked membranes of which we don’t have any spares while uncontrolled fluctuation of electricity causes the motors to burn out,” said Dr Qadri.

He proposed ensuring reasonable stock of spare membranes, dialysers and electric motors to meet emergency situations. Presently, of two RO systems only one was working to cater to needs of 50 patients in a day, he said, adding that the unit badly needed “express electricity feeder” to carry on work smoothly as the fluctuation often disturbed the dialysis procedure.

The hide and seek of power and then constant fluctuation caused damage to costly machines and linked-up devices, he said.

Dr Qadri complained about acute shortage of staff in the dialysis unit and said that it was impossible for one technician to look after 12 patients on dialysis. At least three should be posted in a single shift to look after the patients, he said.

Insufficient number of doctors posted in the unit was also a big issue while there was no night watchman for indoor patients, said sources.

The in-charge of the nephrology department called for immediate renovation of the unit currently housed in old casualty block of CMCH. The rise in kidney patients demanded construction of an independent hospital on the pattern of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, said Dr Qadri.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2021