New Delhi: The Guru Harkrishan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research’s new block at Delhi’s Gurdwara Bala Sahib was teeming with people Tuesday as the facility threw its doors open for those seeking free dialysis treatment.
Built by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), the 100-bed dialysis centre at the gurdwara in Sarai Kale Khan is being touted as India’s biggest dialysis centre.
“So the idea behind this is that more than 30 per cent of kidney patients don’t have any access to the medical facilities, either they are so poor or they have sold every asset to cover this cost,” said DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
He added: “The concept of the hospital is that we will not charge any money from the patients. There are many people who are coming out with the contributions, there are people who feel that humans should be served, there are corporate houses who are coming forward … funding it from CSR, so yes we will take all that and won’t charge from patients.”
The facility had received over 1,500 registrations until Tuesday afternoon.
Prescribed for patients with kidney problems, dialysis is a process of filtering and purifying the blood using machines. According to the Union health ministry, about 2.2 lakh people are diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease in India every year, “resulting in additional demand for 3.4 crore dialysis” sessions.
“With approximately 4950 dialysis centres, largely in the private sector in India, the demand is less than half met with existing infrastructure. Since every dialysis has an additional expenditure tag of about Rs.2000, it results in a monthly expenditure for patients to the tune of Rs.3-4 lakhs annually,” the ministry has said in a document about the National Dialysis Program that was started in 2016.
Also read: 1,600 kg aata, 1,200 kg rice daily — how Delhi’s Bangla Sahib Gurdwara is feeding 75k people
‘No billing counter’
Vinod Kumar, a 44-year-old resident of Faridabad in Haryana, has been undergoing dialysis for the last eight years. Each session, he said, would cost him Rs 1,500 with the monthly cost culminating up to Rs 20,000 to Rs 22,000.
The treatment became especially unbearable after Kumar lost his job during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I am unemployed and my father is taking on all the costs. He is retired. So he is doing all of this with his pension,” he said, adding: “The moment I heard about this centre, I came here to see what facilities they have here … This money can be spent on something else now.”
Lata Sardana shared a similar story. A resident of Delhi, she came seeking treatment for her husband at the facility after learning about it from WhatsApp forwards and news shows.
“My husband is now retired, we don’t have so much money. We would spend around Rs 50,000 per month. That’s why we have come here. There are new machines here as well,” she said.
Dr Venkatesh R, medical director at the hospital, told ThePrint: “This is an extension of Guru Harkrishan Hospital, which has one consultant, a team of three nephrologists, an ICU, an operation theatre… (apart from that) we have around 90 technicians to cater to 100 patients at a time, so we are running round the clock.”
About the registration process, he said the patients will need to furnish their medical records that will be scanned and sent to nephrologists at hospitals.
“They will give advice on how to go about it. And there is no question of showing Aadhaar card or any other document (to avail the facility). There’s no billing counter to pay the registration money over there,” he added.
The DSGMC, he said, will also bear the cost of the injections — hormone erythropoietin, for example — that are administered after a dialysis session.
Also read: MRI scan at Rs 50, dialysis at Rs 600 — Delhi gurdwara readies ‘cheapest’ diagnostics centre
Plans to expand
According to Sirsa, the committee also has plans to expand the 100-bed facility to a 1,000-bed facility, to make it “the biggest of its kind in the world”.
The current facility that is being housed in the Panth Ratan Baba Harbans Singh Ki Dialysis Block took over one and a half years to build. “Soon you will see the second phase starting here and in a couple of months we will achieve the target,” he said.
In the second phase, the DSGMC has plans to acquire 500 more machines of German make, over and above the 100 that the facility has.
The committee is also setting up a diagnostics centre at the famous Gurdwara Bangla Sahib that promises to provide MRI scans and ultrasound for a very nominal cost. The diagnostics centre at the 50-year-old Guru Harkrishan Polyclinic Bangla Sahib is likely to be opened soon.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
Also read: Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee to give insurance to staff providing Covid relief
Is kidney transplant facility available in this hospital
We are an associate partner of this project we are glad to do some noble work with the gurudwara community.
Hemant surgical always thank them to give us an opportunity to do a noble work
best doctors but fistula is Not done here
After fistula patients will dialysis
Excellent team work, dedicated doctors
fistula required,
if not then they suggest gO to our Old guru harikirshan hospital and get fistula @35000 4-5days admission then you come back we will dialysis you both hospitals. In same boss D. s. G. M. C. If you came only for dialysis then its Registration is Over.
work in progress register your name then they call you
come to register they will call
Is liver checkup here ?
My father is suffering from high kidney pblm
My mother, who is suffering from both kidneys, who had been on continuous medication since 2018, but now is getting dialysis. Every third day, if I bring my mother to Gurdwara Sikh Guru Harkishan Singh Kidney Center, how much will I have to pay . Which is a very serious condition. Will there be any arrangement for his stay if a fellow is with him? Or the patient has to be brought every third day. Because every third day it would be impossible for me to get it from Mahendragarh district of Haryana. Therefore, dialysis service was also necessary. If the dialysis was not done on time, he would die. How to register for this hospitalization. Let me be told 7082079776 is my mobile number.
Kydne infection treatment
Kya es institute me heart ka b treatment hota h.cardiology department h
Is transplant available here?
Only dialysis is conducted here, you need an efficient team of urologists and nephrologists with the facilities of a proper hospital for transplant but I’m sure there’d be doctors here who could advice you for the same!
Superb initiative. In India since all governments have zero interest in providing healthcare facilities it is left to such organisations to take up the initiative.
Really have you heard of government hospitals ever, or health budget? Maybe government should also have more cameras and PR drive than healthcare facilities.
In govt hospitals getting a simple ultrasound needs 1 month ahead appointment. Mr Perussionist, Treatment delayed is equivalent to treatment denied.
Publicity of these hospital is done so that more people can avail these facilities and more donors like you come forward for better, healthy India