PESHAWAR: Patients suffering from kidney diseases on Thursday stopped receiving free medications offered to them after dialysis in all the public sector hospitals due to lack of funds, sources told The News.
According to sources, all the public sector hospitals offering free dialysis services have stopped providing free medicines to patients, except the Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD) in Peshawar, as the government didn’t release any funds for free medications since July 2016.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2014 released Rs150 million under special initiative for free dialyses and medications for nine hospitals of the province.Senior officials of the Health Department said that previously the amount was given to the IKD management that later distributed funds among eight other hospitals of the province.
They said the IKD administration in 2014 then distributed Rs75 million among eight other hospitals of the province for free medications to the dialysis patients. “We learnt that the government again has given same amount to IKD for further distribution among other hospitals but this time they didn’t pay the amount to other hospitals,” said a senior nephrologist at one of the hospitals.
Also, he said all the hospitals used to receive funds for free medications to the dialysis patients as additional grant but the government didn’t release the amount yet to any hospital that created hardships for the patients.
Recently some patients lodged their protest at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) after they could not get free medications for home following dialysis and blamed the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government for depriving them of free drugs.
Last year, the KTH alone received Rs13 million under additional grant for free medications. Some officials argued the amount has not been released due to lack of audit of the previous funds.
According to doctors, they used to spend Rs5000 to Rs6000 on free medications of each patient. “Now when the government has stopped these funds, patients and their attendants are fighting with doctors and technicians for not providing them free medications. They don’t believe when we tell them that the government has stopped the funds,” said a senior nephrologist in KTH.
