Safdarjung Hosp starts dialysis facility for children

The centre-run Safdarjung Hospital has started a Hemodialysis facility for children. Medical Superintendent Dr. (Prof) BL Sherwal inaugurated the facility here.

Safdarjung Hospital has become the second central government-run hospital to provide dialysis facilities for children in north India, after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.Children with chronic kidney disease(CKD) and end-stage renal disease who come to Safdarjung Hospital were usually referred to other hospitals.

Dr. Sherwal said that two dialysis machines have been installed in the Department of Paediatrics for Children. With their help, the dialysis of four patients can be done every day.

Thousands of child patients visit the hospital every year and there are many patients who need dialysis. At the same time, the doctors of the pediatric department said that kidney failure in children is not uncommon and a large number of children die due to acute kidney failure. There are many children who can be saved by treatment and about 10 per cent of the children coming for treatment in the department are of chronic kidney failure, which is a huge figure. Most of the patients who require hemodialysis are in the waiting period for a transplant.

Currently, there is a huge gap between the demand and the available services. Children with kidney failure issues who are coming from Delhi as well as neighboring states are going to be benefited from this facility. The hospital also announced that they will run a nephrology outpatient department daily and extend dialysis timings to 8 pm.

Meanwhile, a bone marrow transplant facility was opened for public at the Centre-run Safdarjung hospital on Wednesday.

Safdarjung Hospital is the first central government hospital where BMT facility will be available at a negligible cost to the patient which costs around Rs 10-15 lakh in private facilities, said Dr Kaushal Kalra, the Head of Department, Medical Oncology.

Medical Superintendent Dr B L Sherwal, who inaugurated the facility, said the opening of a BMT unit would provide a big relief for all the poor patients.

Earlier in Delhi, only AIIMS offered this facility in a government set up for patients of blood cancer and other cancers.

Besides, AIIMS, in northern India, at government facilities, BMT happens in Postgraduate Institute

of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow.