NAROWAL: Most of renal failure patients who get free dialysis at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, Narowal, belong to Shakargarh tehsil and doctors blame poor quality of potable water and presence of too many quacks for their sufferings.

Rural areas of Zafarwal tehsil face identical issues as the number of renal cases are on the rise.

Batool Bano, 45, a resident of village Pindi Mohlak of tehsil Zafarwal, has been getting dialysis service at the DHQ hospital renal unit for the last three years. She says drinking water in the village is contaminated and many of its residents are suffering from liver, stomach, skin and kidney problems because of contaminated water. She says her five village fellows suffering from kidney problems have died recently.

The dialysis centre of the hospital has been providing a great service to the people of the district facing kidney issues and requiring dialysis who are otherwise deprived of many amenities of life. The centre, established in 2009, has been functioning well despite the vacant posts of nephrologist and urologist due to the efforts of technicians who work under the supervision of a medical specialist.

Sole dialysis centre deals with crisis despite limited resources

At the time of its establishment, the Punjab government had provided the centre with only four dialysis machines, two more machines were added in 2014 while one such machine was donated by a local trader. The patients of the districts of Sialkot, Gujranwala and Sheikhupura also benefit from the health facility.

Hamid Ali, a 68-year-old resident of village Kot Naina, tehsil Shakargarh, says he has been availing the dialysis facility since 2009 as a kidney transplant is impossible for him due to age. He covers a distance of 55km twice a week for his dialysis. He is thankful to the government for the free treatment facility as before coming to the centre, he says, he had spent hundreds of thousands of rupees to get treatment from public and private hospitals of Lahore. Without the health facility, Hamid says, he might have died nine years back.

Since its establishment, the dialysis centre has given free treatment to 25,651 patients -- 11,725 men and 13,927 women. The patients are given free medicines at the centre which works 24 hours a day.

Tariq Shaheen, a dialysis technician at the centre, says the government spends Rs4,000 on one dialysis while sometimes a patient undergoes dialysis twice a week.

Adeela Shahzadi, another dialysis technician, says every year at least two patients get kidney transplant at the centre.

The number of dialysis machines at the centre of the DHQ hospital is not sufficient for the number of patients it receives and the patients have to get themselves registered in advance to get dialysis facility.

DHQ hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Younus says that the hospital needs at least 20 machines to deal with the increasing the number of patients. He says they have requested the health department to appoint nephrologist and urologist in the hospital repeatedly but received no response.

Dr Muhammad Idrees says dialysis centre needs proper urologist and nephrologist for provision of better treatment facilities to the patients.

The locals have also called for more dialysis machines at the DHQ hospital’s centre to deal with the patients. Anjuman-i-Shehrian Narowal President Sheikh Saaer Ali has lauded the government for facilities of free dialysis and medicines but demanded an increase in the number of dialysis machines at the centre so that lives of the patients waiting for their turn to get the facility of dialysis might be saved.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017