Lack of facility for vital tests keeping kidney patients away from Navelim dialysis unit

JOAO SOUSA M | NT

NAVELIM: The absence of testing facility to detect viral markers, which is important for dialysis, is keeping many kidney patients away from the dialysis unit in the government primary health centre at Navelim.

According to highly placed sources in the know, the mandatory tests like HBV quantitative test, HCV quantitative test and anti-HBS anti-bodies test, which need to be carried out prior to the dialysis dose, are not available at the Navelim primary health centre. Patients need to gets these tests done separately at private centres. The sources said that these tests cost around Rs 3,000 to Rs 7,000. This has resulted in many kidney patients looking for other avenues to get their dose of dialysis.

An official said despite the entire cycle of dialysis being provided free of cost at the Navelim primary health centre, many patients mostly from other hospitals who had approached the health centre have not returned back to avail the service. The official attributed this to the high cost of the mandatory tests, which the patients are forced to get done outside.

The official said that while the hospitals empanelled under the Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana (DDSSY) provide only 12 dialysis cycles free of cost, at the Navelim health centre, additional dialysis cycles, if required, are also provided free of cost to the patients. Also, at the Navelim centre, the patients are not needed to pay for the tubes needed for the procedure, while in other hospitals, the patients need to buy the tubes they need for the procedure.

Meanwhile, with a rise in lifestyle diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure, the number of kidney patients is also increasing in the state and the Navelim primary health centre witnesses one new patient every month.

Barely three months after the dialysis unit was commissioned, four new cases from Navelim itself have been registered for treatment at the centre. Doctors fear that the number of kidney-related cases could be much higher in Navelim and believe that such cases have either not been detected or the patients are undergoing treatment in private hospitals.

Soon after the dialysis unit was commissioned, the Navelim primary health centre had one kidney patient in the first month while two new patients were added in April. In May, the primary health centre registered four cases of which three were from Navelim. Two new cases were registered at the primary health centre in June.

Senior nephrologist and transplant specialist at the Goa Medical College and Hospital Dr Shital Lengade said that neglecting lifestyle diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure etc increases the risk of kidney-related diseases which eventually lead to patients requiring to go in for dialysis doses.

The nephrologist said if diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure are not controlled and monitored, they could cause long term  damage to the kidneys adding that recurring urine infection could also affect the kidneys while genetic cause is the other reason for the increase in kidney-related ailments.