Poor patients undergoing dialysis at the State-run Institute of Nephro-Urology will have to shell out 25 per cent more from now on.
Patients with BPL cards, who were earlier paying Rs. 250 per dialysis, now have to shell out Rs. 310. Those under the APL category, who were paying Rs. 500 per dialysis, now have to pay Rs. 625.
The hospital authorities said that this was not unreasonable since the charges had remained stagnant since 2007, while maintenance charges had gone up.
However, this increase has come as a shock to many. “I bring my 13-year-old son Naveen from K.R. Puram for dialysis thrice a week to the institute and have to spend quite a sum on conveyance. I am a daily wager and have to miss work on dialysis days as I have to accompany my son. How can I afford to pay the increased charges?” asked Srinivas M.
Narsimha Murthy (29), who comes from Konanakunte Cross, said the “patients had no other go but to pay and get dialysed as they cannot afford dialysis in a private hospital.”
C.S. Rathkal, who retired as the Institute Director last week, said the proposal to increase the charges had been approved by the Institute’s Finance Committee on August 12 last year.
“We have increased the charges as the prices of all consumables have gone up. We had placed the proposal before the Governing Council on February 2 and got it approved,” he said.
When contacted, Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash R. Patil promised that he would get the institute to “put the revised charges on hold.”
