GUJRAT, Oct 16: Two dialysis machines at Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital have been lying out of order for the last two-and-a-half years due to alleged negligence of the authorities and kidney patients have to go to private hospitals for treatment.

The Patients’ Welfare Association accused a urologist of damaging the machines to benefit his private practice.

The first Rs1.4 million dialysis machine was installed at the hospital in 1998. The funds were arranged by the Punjab Baitul Mal and the Patients’ Welfare Association while another second-hand machine was donated to the hospital by philanthropist Mir Shoaib Ahmed, of Lahore, some six years ago.

Sources say the water treatment plant of the USA-made machine broke down and the urologist did the dialysis of a Hepatitis C patient at the second machine due to which the machine had to be abandoned. In the last three years, the association also provided funds for the repair of the machine but it could not be fixed. The association also lost interest in the project when no action was taken against the staff responsible for damaging the machine.

A few days ago, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sardar Akram Javed asked the patients’ association to get the machine fixed but association president Mian Muhammad Ijaz and general secretary Javed Butt said the NGO would provide a new dialysis machine to the hospital on the condition that the hospital would itself arrange technical staff. The district administration, however, is reluctant to take the responsibility.

Dr Tahir Butt, deputy medical superintendent of Aziz Bhatti hospital, confirmed that old machines had been dysfunctional for a long time as funds were not on hand to get them fixed.