CHENNAI CORPORATION: Dialysis centres yet to get equipment

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on May 12, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/dialysis-centres-yet-to-get-equipment/273522.html

CHENNAI: Though the Chennai Corporation’s two dialysis centres at Perambur and Nungambakkam were inaugurated more than two months ago, not a single patient has received any treatment in these centres as dialysis units are yet to be installed.

On February 28, a day before the model code of conduct for state Assembly polls came into effect, Mayor M Subramanian inaugurated these centres and announced that the civic body would provide free dialysis to underprivileged patients. 
A visit to these centres, located near Valluvarkottam in Nungambakkam and on Perambur High Road in Perambur, revealed that the patients who were approaching the centres for dialysis procedures were returned by duty staff who informed them that the ‘machines are not working.’

According to sources, Chennai Corporation was to procure dialysis units for these centres through the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh.

Requisition for those units were placed with the TNMSC by mid-February and both the machines were expected to be delivered by the end of that month.

Around the same time, the possibility of the announcement of the Assembly election schedule for the state was looming large which forced the Mayor to reportedly ‘hasten up’ things, lest the project gets embroiled in the model code of conduct.

Mayor Subramanian decided to ‘inaugurate’ the two centres even before the dialysis units were procured and installed, purportedly to secure political mileage during the election campaign.

According to health department projections, kidney-related diseases affect about 80 persons out of a lakh people in India and most of them need regular dialysis to survive.

In Chennai, an estimated 25,000 persons needed dialysis for kidney-related ailments.

In the city, patients are charged up to Rs 3,000 each for dialysis in private hospitals and a few voluntary health organisations are offering the service at a subsidised cost.

When contacted, a senior corporation official said that the units would be installed soon at these centres.