The government is set to set up dialysis centres at district level since only 10 per cent out of total 20 million renal/kidney patients have access to dialysis facility, officials said.
The ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) has already prepared a draft proposal for setting up dialysis centres across the country.
As per the proposal, the dialysis centres will be set up at district level under public-private partnership (PPP) initiative.
"Initially, these will be set up in some districts," a high official of the MoHFW who is involved with the process told the FE.
He said out of the total renal/kidney patients, the number of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients is 160,000 who desperately need to go for dialysis regularly.
There are only 1,000 dialysis machines at 100 centres (both public and private) across the country which can provide dialysis services to only 10 per cent of the total patients.
The rest of the patients are deprived of dialysis services. Some 40,000 renal/ kidney disease patients die annually in Bangladesh.
Apart from the divisional cities and two districts, there is no public dialysis centres in the country, according to the draft proposal.
A few districts have the dialysis centres being run by the private sector.
The government is going to set up more dialysis centres to help the poor people in getting dialysis services.
The government will build the centres at the district public hospitals or elsewhere in the district.
The private sector will bear the cost of setting up the dialysis centres. Each of the districts will have 10 dialysis machines to be installed either at public hospitals or private hospitals.
The private sector will establish the centres under the government project "Establishment of Haemo Dialysis Centre at National Institute of Kidney Disease and Urology (NIKDU) and Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH)".
The NIKDU and CMCH will install 80 more dialysis machines under the project.
If the project becomes successful, the patients in Dhaka and Chittagong will get more benefits.
Under the project, the government will sign concession agreement with the private sector to establish the centres.
Initially, the private sector will have to invest Tk 15 million in setting up the centres.
"The centres will be set up in all the districts gradually, depending on the success of the initiative," the health ministry official said.
He said they had sent the proposal to the cabinet committee on economic affairs for approval.
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