J&K: Dialysis centre at Raja Sukhdev Singh District Hospital turns lifeline for Poonch residents

Jammu, Dec 4 Free dialysis service for families below the poverty line (BPL) under the Pradhan Mantri Dialysis Program has alleviated the sufferings of lakhs of kidney patients across the country, with Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) being no exception.

In the Poonch district of the Union Territory, thousands of beneficiaries are expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring the availability of free dialysis service at the Raja Sukhdev Singh District Hospital.

Poonch, a border district located near the India-Pakistan Line of Control (LoC) gets limited access to host of government schemes because of lack of accessibility, however, this dialysis center has turned out to be a lifeline not just for residents in Poonch district but also the adjoining ones, from where people travel to the government hospital for availing dialysis services, free of cost.

Previously, kidney patients had to travel to Chandigarh, Jammu, or Srinagar for dialysis, and now they can receive dialysis here at no cost. Kidney patients, as well as their attendants, are thanking the government for this. Some caretakers are also urging the government to increase the capacity of the dialysis unit at Raja Sukhdev Singh District Hospital.

They say that the unit currently has six beds, and increasing its capacity to 15-20 beds would benefit more patients.

Hospital’s Medical Superintendent told IANS that the dialysis unit in Poonch is greatly benefiting the residents, and now patients no longer travel to longer distances to Jammu or Srinagar because of the world-class dialysis unit in Poonch itself, where 250-300 people are receiving dialysis every month.

Notably, the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) was launched in 2016-17 to facilitate dialysis services free of cost to Below Poverty Line (BPL) beneficiaries at the district hospitals in the country. Thousands of Haemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis services have been set up across the country by state governments/UT administrations under the auspices of the National Health Mission (NHM).

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