Free of cost kidney transplant service from mid April: Health Minister Thapa

Kathmandu / March 9: The government is preparing to provide free kidney transplant services to the kidney patients from the state-run health facilities applicable from the beginning of the New Year.

Minister for Health Gagan Thapa shared so at a programme organized by the Human Organ Transplant Centre and Arogya Foundation on the occasion of the World Kidney Day in the capital city on Thursday.

The service will be availed to the patients through the government’s Health Tax Fund scheme. The government has recently introduced free dialysis services for kidney patients.

According to Minister Thapa, discussions with the globally established pharmaceutical companies are underway to facilitate essential drugs for kidney patients.

Furthermore, Thapa said that the identification of non-communicable diseases at 1,000 health posts was going to be started from this fiscal year and would be extended to all the health posts across the country by the next fiscal year.

He said, “Earlier there were issues related to human organs transplant in the absence of rules to enact Human Organ Transplant Act. The new rules have been recently formulated, and transplantation of human certain human organs has been easier with it. The public need to be aware about the development.”

Centre’s Executive Director and senior transplant surgeon Dr Pukar Chandra Shrestha brought to fore the fact that those with obesity are at seven times higher risk of kidney related ailment than those with sound health.

Former Secretary at the Parliament Secretariat Som Bahadur Thapa, who has undergone kidney transplantation, confided that he got a new hope for life after the government introduced scheme for free kidney dialysis and planning to introduce free transplant services.

He urged the government that it helped develop the Centre as an educational institution to produce kidney transplant specialists.

World Health Representative to Nepal, Dr Jos Vandelaer, stressed that the free transplantation of kidney be effective soon.

Similarly, Chairperson of Aarogya Foundation, Ani Choying Dolma, said that the government has carried out works in favour of the people by formulating the Act related to organ transplantation.

The World Kidney Day was marked on Thursday under the theme ‘kidney diseases and obesity.’

On the occasion, Kidney specialists urged all to save their kidney by maintaining healthy life style, appropriate weight as well as having balanced and healthy food, and sufficient amount of water.

Some 3,000 suffer from kidney disease in Nepal every year and any type of problem related to kidney disease is seen in one out of 10 persons.

The centre organised a free organ donation camp at Tundikhel on Thursday. RSS