LARKANA: The ‘Day Care Dialysis Centre’ of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) inaugurated by Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari here on Nov 4, 2021, has started working in three shifts.

According to sources privy to the health facility, a total of 78 patients — 26 in each shift — are provided dialysis facility free of cost.

Initially, the patients hailing from Larkarna district and registered with the SIUT are being sent to this day care centre for dialysis. These patients, otherwise, had to travel to Karachi or Sukkur to avail the facility.

SIUT founder Prof Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi had visited the site, earmarked for the day care centre, on Aug 9, 2017 and planted a sapling in an event, where he had announced that the facility would be started with 25 dialysis machines.

Although the centre had taken off with 16 dialysis machines, it shared the load of patients coming from Sukkur and Karachi.

With the passage of time, the frequency of kidney patients started swelling up which made the SUIT managers to start three shifts of dialysis a day.

At present, the Larkana centre is providing dialysis and pathology facilities for essential medical tests, according to the sources.

The technical staff come from SIUT’s Sukkur and Karachi facilities to perform duties here on a rotation basis. They are provided board and lodging facility.

The Day Care Dialysis Centre is being run in the old building of PPHI and two new blocks built adjacent to it. The need for expansion at the SIUT Larkana was felt in the wake of a gradual rise in the number of kidney patients and the load transferred here from Karachi and Sukkur.

Surmounting all obstacles, SIUT managers in close coordination with and assistance of Sindh government had acquired more land in Larkana to execute the expansion plan. The designs, maps and everything meant to start the construction of a five-storey building on a piece of land measuring 35,000 square yards were finalised.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2023