Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday inaugurated dialysis centres at 16 sub-divisional hospitals in the state.
The government had planned to open dialysis centres at 32 sub-divisional hospitals in the state.
The CM inaugurated the dialysis centres at sub-divisional hospitals of Khurda, Pallahara, Talcher, Soro, Kamakhyanagar, Hindol, Dharmagarh, Gunupur, Baliguda, Anandpur, Champua, Bonaigarh, Rairangpur, Udala, Tigiria and Dungurpalli through video conference, an official release said.
With the opening of dialysis centres at sub-divisional hospitals, kidney patients can now avail the facility free of cost in their localities, the Chief Minister said.
He said the state government had introduced free of cost dialysis facility for kidney patients in 2018. Odisha was the first state in the country to provide free dialysis facility.
Initially, the state government had set up dialysis centres at district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) and now it is taking steps to open such units at 32 sub-divisional hospitals in the state. The state government will spend Rs 50 crore to provide free dialysis facility to kidney patients, Naveen said.
The government had opened 36 dialysis centres at state-run medical college and hospitals and DHHs in Odisha. Today, the facility was inaugurated at 16 sub-divisional hospitals. The state government will open 16 such centres in future, sources said.
“Odisha will soon have 68 dialysis centres. These centres can perform 3.7 lakh dialysis sessions in a year,” said an official.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Niranjan Pujari and Agriculture Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain joined the programme from Dunguripalli in Sonepur and Tigiria in Cuttack respectively.
