LARKANA, March 17: The operation of newly-purchased seven dialysis machines, installed in the urology department of Chandka Medical College Hospital, has been delayed for over a month.

There was no gate at the reverse osmosis system unit and a room for a solution used in dialysis was incomplete when this correspondent visited the dialyses unit of the urology department on Monday.

The machines were purchased at a cost of Rs3.05 million, sources in the hospital said.

The resident medical officer and a technician of the dialysis unit told this correspondent that the machines were installed one and half month ago.

The concerned engineers would come from Karachi to put the machines in operation, they said.

Five of the machines would be used for hepatitis-B negative cases and two for hepatitis-B positive cases. Earlier, such cases were referred to Karachi.

CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Mehboob Shah said that engineers had made machines fully operational and soon they would begin working.

Already four other dialysis machines were working and providing dialysis facility to at least 10 kidney patients daily but another machine had become out of order, Dr Shah said.

The hospital had been providing dialysis-kit to patients from Zakat funds but the funds had been exhausted, it was learnt.

Each dialysis session, the technician said, cost around Rs800 except the first one that cost Rs2,000.

The government had discontinued the practice of bearing the expenses of treatment of kidney patients under a special scheme that was introduced by the government of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Dr Shsh said.

The machines should immediately be put into operation for the benefit of patients of kidney failure, who survive on dialysis.

The urology department of the CMCH serves patients of Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Sadiqabad (Punjab) and some parts of Balochistan.

PEACE WALK: Workers of non-governmental organizations on Sunday staged a peace walk to oppose the possible US attack on Iraq.

The walk, which began from the Latif Nizamani Labour Hall and terminated at the local press club, was led by Ms Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto, general secretary of the All Pakistan Women’s Association and Ms Kalapna, chairperson of the Paras Support Organization.

While talking to this correspondent, both of the NGO activists urged the international community to work for avoiding imposition of war against Iraq, adding that the world leaders should move towards negotiations rather than pushing the world into war.