Health Desk:
In Quetta’s ancient civil hospital, most of the dialysis machines are not functional for the last four months. Only 3 out of a total of 18 dialysis machines are currently functional, a senior doctor in the hospital told the daily Quetta Voice. The doctor declined to be named since he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“We used to conduct around 100 dialysis of the kidney, diabetic patients daily when machines were functional”, the doctor revealed. Now the number has dropped to only 8 dialysis per day since only three machines are functional.
In Quetta’s private hospitals, the patients pay Rs. 5,000 to 7,000 per dialysis. Kidney and diabetic patients are required to conduct 8 dialysis in a month. Most of the patients waiting outside the Nephrology ward of the hospital were hailing from Balochistan’s far-flung areas. “I have been waiting for the last four hours for dialysis of my patient”, Manzoor Ahmed, a young man from Balochistan’s district Mastung said.
The Balochistan government increased its health budget for the financial year 2020-21 by 32 percent to Rs31.405 billion as against the current fiscal’s Rs23.981 billion with an aim to improve the vital sector.
“Machines are always non-functional here”, Muhammad Qasim, an attendant of a patient said.
It takes almost 4 hours to conduct one dialysis. Patients wait for hours for their turn. Despite repeated attempts neither the Medical Superintendent civil hospital nor the Spokesman government of Balochistan could be contacted to get their point of view about the non-functional dialysis machines.
“I cannot afford to pay heavy fees in private hospitals for dialysis”, Muhammad Qasim lamented.
The civil hospital is located in the heart of Quetta city and considered to be an ancient health facility constructed by the British Raj.
