PAKISTAN: Patients requiring dialysis face problemsWednesday, June 24, 2009
By Muhammad Qasim
Rawalpindi
Patients coming to the Benazir Bhutto Hospital for free dialysis have to suffer badly mainly due to shortage of dialysis machines in the morning and unavailability of trained staff in the evening.
Most patients requiring the facility at the dialysis unit of the hospital have to wait for their turn for hours, sometimes for more than eight hours.
Patients interviewed by ‘The News’ said that they were facing difficulties due to poor management of the hospital staff. According to them, the hospital staff should make a proper schedule for patients in such a way that they should not have to wait in long queues.
In August last year, the Punjab government had started providing the facility of free haemodialysis to kidney patients in all teaching hospitals and district headquarters hospitals in the province and the BBH was given four dialysis machines.
Initially, the number of patients coming to the BBH was limited and could easily be managed but over last few months the influx of patients requiring dialysis has increased manifold. “In January this year, we performed a total of 197 dialysis, in February 211, in March 278, in April 288, in May 332 and in June to date we have performed 241 dialysis,” said BBH spokesman Dr. Malik Bashir while talking to ‘The News’ here on Tuesday.
He said that the provision of free dialysis in government set-ups is a great relief for people. For this reason, there has been consistent increase in the number of patients being registered at the BBH. The average cost of a dialysis at a private set-up is Rs8,000, including the cost of disposables and medicines and a patient suffering from kidney failure has to undergo eight to twelve dialysis every month.
Dr. Malik Bashir said that procedures of dialysis at the BBH are being done in three shifts, first from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., second from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and third from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. “The BBH has four dialysis machines. As many as 16 dialysis are being performed daily as normally one procedure takes nearly four hours. The washing of a machine after a dialysis process eats up nearly one hour,” he said.
The statistics given to ‘The News’ by the BBH administration reveals that the hospital should be capable of managing 400 to 416 cases in 25 or 26 working days per month smoothly and there should be no need for keeping patients in long queues for hours.
Dr. Malik Bashir said that apart from registered patients, the BBH has to perform dialysis of patients reaching the Accident & Emergency Department of the hospital.
Talking to ‘The News,’ patients also complained that the staffer on duty at the dialysis unit during night shift are not well trained and it is a routine that they fail in passing double lumen vascular catheter (fistula) for the dialysis process.
“We call such patients in the morning when doctors are available,” said a senior staff member serving at the dialysis unit.
Dr. Malik Bashir, admitting the fact, said that the staff in evening and night shifts have to face complications sometimes.
The BBH administration has repeatedly claimed that it has a fully equipped Urology Department to provide the service. Head of Urology Department at the BBH Dr. Afzal Farooqi is supervising the treatment facility at the dialysis unit.
Dr. Bashir said that soon after the commissioning of free of cost facility of dialysis last year, the BBH had demanded the Punjab Health Department to provide six more machines to the hospital to cater to the needs of huge influx of patients.
“I have been told that the purchase of machines for the BBH is in process,” he said. He added that as soon as the BBH receives six more machines, the hospital would be able to resolve the problems of delay being confronted by patients.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=184694
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