A recent proposal made by the Medical Education and Research Department to the Health and Family Welfare Department to outsource dialysis services in government medical college hospitals falling under the control of Directorate of Medical and Research has once again raised fears among activists and doctors about the steady shift of the government to privatise important medical services.
The proposal’s introduction boasting about Tamil Nadu being a front runner in establishing state of the art, medical infrastructure, also said, there were few roadblocks in achieving desirable standard in medical college and district headquarters hospitals.
The roadblocks mentioned were “availability and quality of machines, trained technicians and supporting staff, consumables and availability of nephrologists.”
Regarding the existing system of dialysis services in government hospitals, the proposal said that adequate number of dialysis machines were already established with government / National Health Mission funds at the hospitals.
Detailing the existing system, the proposal said that outsourcing all services would be a solution to this.
It said, “Available machines will be taken over by the agency.” It suggested the outsourcing agency for procurement of additional machines and maintenance would be carried out by them.
“Consumables, technicians and specialists are provided by the agency. Mainly the regular dialysis (maintenance type) will be undertaken by the agency under CMCHIS, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) or private insurance or cash basis,” it noted.
A. Veronica Mary, a social activist based in Madurai said, the main revenue for taluk hospitals and technicians comes from dialysis services. “When the income to the taluk hospitals from the dialysis is cut by outsourcing the revenue generation for basic services will be an unattainable task. It will make the system unaccountable, she noted.
“When a mistake happens in government service, it can be known through RTI but, when the same mistake happens with a private agency, the mistake would be buried without any action,” she feared.
A. R. Shanthi, secretary, Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said, as Tamil Nadu was one of the States with highest number of diabetes, hypertension, there was more need for patients to undergo renal transplant.
“Till they get a proper donor for transplant, they must undergo dialysis. But the unfortunate situation in the State is that the total number of permanent dialysis technicians working in government hospitals is only seven and the number of temporary staff is also very less,” she added.
When enormous amount was reduced for dialysis itself from the CMCHIS, the patient would be out of money to treat the complications, she observed.
The Health department’s move to develop a road map for haemodialysis services by also looking at Public Private Partnership models was strongly objected to by a section of doctors. An expert committee was constituted to deliberate on creating the roadmap. No further meetings were conducted, sources in the department said
Published – January 30, 2025 08:54 pm IST