NEW DELHI: After free treatment along with medicines and diagnostic tests, the Delhi government on Monday announced it will provide free dialysis treatment to patients of kidney failure, whose annual income is below Rs three lakh.
Private hospitals, that have a minimum of 10 dialysis machines, will be included in the dialysis service schemes.
The Delhi government has already installed 15 dialysis machines and 60 more machines will be installed on public private partnership (PPP) model in the future.
Addressing reporters here, Jain said the government was looking for hospitals that would provide dialysis to eligible patients at Rs 1,274, which would be reimbursed by the government.
The eligible hospitals or dialysis centres should have more than 10 dialysis machines and be empanelled with the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) or Delhi Government Employees Health Scheme (DGEHS).
It is pertinent to mentioned that all Delhi government hospitals provide free medicines, MRI tests and ultrasound tests to patients in the Capital.
Five months after the Aam Aadmi Party-led government had announced procurement of 75 dialysis machines for Delhi government hospitals, so as to help kidney patients, the first 15 were recently installed in two of the hospitals
Patients below poverty line (BPL) will benefit from these new machines, as they will get free dialysis treatment.
For non-BPL patients, the prices will be subsidised at Rs 1,274, as compared to Rs 4,000 at private institutes.
The free dialysis scheme will be implemented as part of the Delhi government's 'Arogya Kosh'.
"Everyone will avail the benefit of this scheme, as even non-BPL patients will pay less than half the market price. The new machines would help those who cannot afford long-term treatment waiting for transplants," Jain told reporters.
Five of the dialysis machines have been installed in west Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and 10 have been given to outer Delhi's Maharishi Valmiki Hospital.
The rest will be installed at Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital (25), Janakpuri Super Speciality Hospital (30), Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital (10), and Madan Mohan Malaviya Hospital (10).
Despite Deen Dayal Upadhyay being a bigger hospital, it could not get more machines due to space crunch.
Before the procurement of new ones, there were 60 dialysis machines at three Delhi government hospitals — Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP), Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality, and Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan — which were installed in 2013 under the PPP model by the erstwhile Congress government and another 15 under the government scheme.