The NKC, which used to provide dialysis service for four hours, said that it has been left with no choice except reducing the dialysis period."We are compelled to reduce the dialysis period from four hours to three hours," Dr Rishi Kumar Kafle, director at the NKC, said. He added that the center will be compelled to stop dialysis service if the ongoing blockade continues. He informed that the NKC lacks hemodialysis fluid, which is vital for dialysis of kidney patients. Similarly, the NKC is also in short supply of normal saline and other medicines needed for dialysis.
Hundreds of renal patients will die within one week if the service is stopped at the NKC - the biggest dialysis service provider in the country. Over five hundred patients with kidney failure have been receiving dialysis services from the NKC.
According to Director Kafle, Indian drug suppliers have stopped providing the medicines including hemodialysis fluids, after India imposed economic sanction since the last three months.
Although Nepali drug manufacturing companies produce some medicines and hemodialysis fluids, they have been unable to function due to the lack of raw materials. "Even the water supplying companies have failed to deliver water to us because of the lack of fuel for their tankers," said Dr Kafle.
Dr Kafle said that the renal patients have been facing difficulty and their health compromised due to the reduction in dialysis period. "We can understand their problems. They have been facing difficulty but we have no option," added Director Kafle.
He said that increased time of dialysis leads to better control of volume excess, reduces occurrence of intra-dialytic hypotension and better control of phosphorus.
Each year more than 3,000 people suffer from renal failure and over 90 percent of them die within a few months.
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