By writer to www.nepalitimes.com
“Yearly, there are 3,000 new kidney sufferers who want dialysis, and there simply aren’t sufficient services to handle this demand,” says nephrologist Santosh Gurung. There are greater than 1,000 sufferers in Kathmandu alone who want remedy, and the difficulties they face have multiplied after the lockdown.
Half of the 54 hospitals designated for kidney dialysis are in Kathmandu Valley, and of the entire 525 dialysis machines within the nation 276 are within the capital. A few of the machines in authorities hospitals aren’t working. Of the ten machines on the Seti Provincial Hospital, solely 5 operate.
Kidney sufferers from Karnali Province at the moment are referred to Nepalganj or Kathmandu because of lack of machines. Kathmandu’s hospitals need to not simply deal with sufferers from the Valley, however many from west Nepal.
As soon as a affected person’s kidneys cease working there are solely two choices: a kidney transplant like those carried out on Prime Minister Ok P Oli, or dialysis twice every week. It takes 4 hours to finish dialysis process, so the machines can deal with solely three kidney sufferers in a day.
This implies there’s a lengthy queue, and hospitals can not tackle any extra sufferers as a result of the machines are ‘booked’. Actually, a wait-listed affected person will get a slot for dialysis provided that the hospital arranges for extra machines, a affected person will get a kidney transplant, or dies.
Transplanting love, Shreejana Shrestha
— to www.nepalitimes.com