The dialysis unit at the district hospital at Kanhangad will be made functional by March, providing relief to renal patients, especially from the economically weaker sections.
Though two state-of-the-art dialysis machines were installed in July 2015, the machines had to be kept idle with the authorities finding it hard to mop up funds to operationalise the unit.
The remaining works of the dialysis unit are fast progressing and it will in all probability be made functional before March, District Medical Officer A.P. Dinesh Kumar told The Hindu on Wednesday.
With the district panchayat chipping in with funds to make the unit functional, the authorities are busy imparting training to the staff and the ancillary unit works are progressing, he said.
Officials are awaiting nod from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and the drug inspector to run the unit. The unit, which will function in two shifts, can help four patients a day, he said.
Dr. Dinesh Kumar said the unit would provide much needed respite to the seriously ill from the financially weaker sections, who had to travel to Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur and hospitals in Mangaluru.
The two dialysis machines, worth over Rs.14 lakh, were donated by Mr. Arana, an educationalist based in Pune, on July 12, 2015 at the behest of M. Ramachandran, Principal of Greenwoods Public School, Bekal.
Mr. Arana had promised to gift yet another dialysis machine if the authorities managed to run the unit within six months.