KARACHI, Oct 10: Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), keeping in view the surge in the number of patients dependent on haemodialysis, particularly since the discontinuation of the national dialysis programme, started with a new haemodialysis unit at its nephrology department on Wednesday.

Prof Shabnam Farooqui said on the occasion that each of the four machines at the new unit could perform three dialysis sessions a day.

She said she hoped that each session of four hours would help effectively meet the ever-growing load of patients belonging to all parts of Sindh as well as Balochistan.

According to her, the Nephrology Department of the JPMC already operating with six haemodialysis machines for long was the first of its kind of health-care outlets across the province to have a full-fledged haemodialysis unit.

“Rs100 to Rs300 would be charged for every haemodialysis sessions from the patients availing the facility,” she said, mentioning that the nominal amount would simply be meant to meet the maintenance cost of the machines.

Dr Shabnam Farooqui said the new arrangement was for larger public benefit as special facilities provided at the JPMC were initially meant for the federal government employees only, with incurring expenditure reimbursed by the government.

The JPMC Nephrology Department, she said, was a 20-bed well-equipped outlet, with provision for x-ray, ultrasound, laboratory, catering some 1,000 indoor patients annually. With the opening of the new unit the number is estimated to increase to 1,500 patients.

Answering a question, she said that predominantly hypertension and diabetes mellitus induced End-Stage Renal Disease patients were provided medical interventions at the department, and those inflicted with the condition due to stone disease were catered at the JPMC’s urology department.—APP