ONGOLE: The doctors’ wing of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) on Saturday urged the State government to open more dialysis centres to fully cater to the needs of patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD).
The five dialysis centres under the Arogyasri scheme were not able to provide treatment to over 2,000 CKD patients, forcing many of them to go to private hospitals and spend more on treatment, said its State president M. Hanumantha Rao.
A team of Congress leaders, after calling on the patients at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, said that the patients and their attendants should be allowed to travel free of cost in State-owned buses to enable them to visit dialysis centres.
Dr. Hanumantha Rao also sought appointment of a nephrologist at RIMS immediately.
The government should announce an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh to the families of those who died of CKD in the last two years, he added.
“It is the responsibility of the government to provide surface water to the people in the district where 48 of the 56 mandals were fluoride-affected. Fluoride toxicity is very critical in 787 habitations,” he said.
As per an estimate, 16,000 people were suffering from dental fluorosis in the district and another 2,000 from skeleton fluorosis, he added.
The team comprised, among others, PCC general secretary T.J.R. Sudhakar Babu, doctors’ wing co-chairman A. Radhakrishnan, district Congress president E. Sudhakar Reddy, and city Congress president Sripathi Prakasam.
