Patients with kidney ailments are suffering and their families have staged protests after the National Institute of Kidney Diseases & Urology (NIKDU) announced it had suspended dialysis service.
The disgruntled families took to the streets in front of NIKDU at Mirpur Road in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar for a demonstration.
Indian company Sandor Dialysis Services Bangladesh Private Ltd, which was running the dialysis service in the institute under a public-private partnership with the government, has stopped the service over arrears, patients complained, according to bdnews24.com.
Traffic came to a standstill when the protesters blocked Mirpur Road on Wednesday.
Al Amin Bari has been undergoing dialysis service twice a week for the past 13 years at NIKDU. The patients there face many different problems, he said.
“When the dialysis is delayed, we [kidney patients] have severe respiratory distress. The more it gets delayed, the more it becomes life-threatening for us. We came at 6 am and found [the dialysis centre] locked. When asked, they said they couldn’t provide dialysis service as the government hasn’t paid them.”
“Every now and then they just stop the service for payment. This causes a lot of trouble for us,” said Jasimuddin Liton.
bdnews24.com could not get a statement from Sandor Dialysis Services Bangladesh Pvt Ltd on the issue.
It requires Tk 2,700 to provide dialysis service for a patient once. The patient pays only Tk 510, while the hospital bears the remainder of the cost. NIKDU offers dialysis at a discounted rate on Mondays and Wednesdays.
None of the regular patients in the hospital have any unpaid dialysis bill, said Prof Md Mizanur Rahman, director of the institute. Some other hospitals had sent patients to NIKDU for dialysis amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, he said, adding the payments for those additional patients have yet to be made.
“Patients came from Kurmitola Hospital, Mugda Hospital due to the overcrowding there. They [Sandor] are asking for their extra payment, which they will get. It’s just that we need a little time.”
He said hospital authorities will try their best to ensure that dialysis service is not stopped.