Kidney patients demonstrate at CMCH

Protesting the recent price hike for dialysis at Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH), kidney patients and their relatives staged demonstrations in front of the hospital yesterday.

The protesters, holding banners and posters, demonstrated before the kidney dialysis centre of the hospital from the morning, demanding restoration of the previous fee for the treatment.

According to sources, the haemodialysis centre at CMCH has been running under the management of a company, Sandor Medicaids, on the basis of a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement since 2017.

As per the agreement, the company set up 31 machines where poor patients recommended by the CMCH authorities would receive dialysis at a cost of Tk 486 per session, and the government would give Tk 2,180 subsidy for the patients for each session, CMCH sources said.

The protesters, however, said a kidney patient needs dialysis eight times a month, and they had to pay Tk 2,795 the first two times and Tk 510 for each of the rest.

And now, the hospital authorities have raised the fee further. Patients now have to pay Tk 2,935 for the first four sessions and Tk 535 for each of the rest sessions in a month, they said.

CMCH Director Brig Gen Md Shamim Ahsan told journalists that the hospital has the capacity to conduct dialysis of 6,500 patients but the number has increased now.

Due to some limitations and as per the directives of the health ministry, the authorities have to raise the dialysis fee. "To inform of the issue, a letter has been sent to the ministry concerned," he added.