Bhubaneswar: To provide dialysis service to the people at affordable cost, the state government has decided to open one dialysis unit each at district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) across the state.
Currently, dialysis services are available at three medical college and hospitals. Although there is a dialysis unit at Capital Hospital, it is not functioning due to lack of trained doctors, official sources said Saturday.
Besides, 49 dialysis units are functional in private hospitals located in 14 districts only.
As there is huge shortage of dialysis units to cater to the needs of people of the state, the government has decided to set up the units on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. If the population of a district is less than 7.5 lakh, one dialysis unit would be set up for two or more districts, the sources stated.
A dialysis machine will cost about Rs 1 to 1.5 crore and the patients will avail the service at Rs 500 as user fee, which is Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 at private hospitals.
As per the decision, the district administration will provide space, electricity and water supply for the dialysis unit at the DHHs.
Although the norms say that there would be one CT scan unit for every 7.5 lakh population, only 56 CT scan units are there in the state so far. The CT scan facilities are available at Koraput, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh and Capital Hospital.
Since there is scarcity of CT scan facilities in the state, the cost of each unit would be around Rs 3 to 4 crore and there is shortage of staff at the government hospitals too. So, the government has decided that the service would be outsourced for 28 DHHs in PPP mode.
Similarly, MRI facility is available at three government medical colleges and hospitals at Berhampur, Cuttack and Burla on outsourcing basis. The government has decided to extend it to all DHHs excluding Deogarh and Boudh as they would be merged with Angul and Kandhamal respectively, the sources said. PNN
