Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel on Tuesday virtually inaugurated 31 dialysis centres at 31 talukas of the state under the Gujarat Dialysis Programme, managed by the Institute of Kidney Diseases & Research Centre (IKDRC), from Vadnagar.
With this, there will now be 92 dialysis centres under the Gujarat Dialysis Programme, according to a press release from the state government.
The state already has 61 such centres functional under the programme by IKDRC, where dialysis is offered free of cost.
According to the state government’s release, Patel also added at the event that the state is aiming to establish and run medical colleges in each district. Patel also interacted online with dialysis patients from GMERS Gotri, where 620 patients have availed dialysis facilities under the Gujarat Dialysis Programme in the past three-and-half months, according to the press release.
Minister Patel also interacted with dialysis patients at Devgadhbaria and Vadnagar dialysis centres under the programme “to gauge the quality of dialysis facilities available at GDP (Gujarat Dialysis Programme) centres,” according to a press release from IKDRC.
The release further said that the 31 centres commissioned on Tuesday “were built at the cost of Rs 16 crore to serve thousands of dialysis patients in various parts of the state.”
Gujarat Dialysis Programme is a flagship programme of IKDRC under the aegis of Government of Gujarat to provide free dialysis to ESRD patients in the state. IKDRC shoulders its responsibility to provide trained manpower, consumables, maintenance, nephrologist and fistula surgeon to end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, wherein provisions to allocate space at district hospitals, sub-district hospitals, medical colleges and GMERS medical colleges to run these centres is done through the Gujarat government.
According to the release, Fairfax India Charitable Foundation has donated 96 dialysis machines at centres so far under Prime Mantri National Dialysis Programme.