MOHALI: Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra on Wednesday launched a ‘Punjab Kidney Foundation’ a kidney support group and a dedicated Kidney Helpline at a private Hospital in Mohali.
The Punjab Kidney Foundation is a support group; the registered members of which will meet every two months. In this forum, the members will be empowered with knowledge through awareness program about disease, treatment modalities, diet and lifestyle management etc. Thus, will resolve their common queries like - what options do they have, who can donate kidney, what should be the frequency of dialysis, and dietary advice etc .This forum will be open for all kidney failure patients & their relatives, other than Ivy hospital patients. Apart from the interactive sessions, diet classes for kidney patients and fun activities will be organized. Kidney Helpline no. 9888 3888 09 will be managed by the qualified team to educate patient and guide them; through telephonic consultation will not be encouraged as clinical examination remains the core of diagnosis & treatment.
While addressing the occasion, Gurtej Singh Chairman of Ivy Group of Hospitals said that being the largest chain of Punjab, our every hospital has a dialysis center. Mohali unit has 25 dialysis machines and has the robust kidney transplant program. We also have applied transplant license at Amritsar unit. Strategic efforts have been put to serve this serious disease burden of the society. In view to address the accessibility issue for kidney failure patients, we also have future plans to start e- consultation by our expert nephrologist and Transplant surgeon.
“We understand, many patients lose hope after they are diagnosed with kidney failure and many do not know what to do and how to go about the treatment plan. So, with the launch of our patient support group and kidney helpline number, we intend to make their lives easier. Besides, our aim is to encourage people to come forward and donate organs to save life by answering their queries and bursting the myths, ” adds Dr. Kanwaldeep, Medical Director Ivy group of Hospitals.
Dr Raka said that we have done almost 1-lakh dialysis sessions and 1000 renal transplants till date so far, since 2008. In the Tricity, we are one of the pioneers in the field of kidney transplant. We were the first to start ABO incompatible transplant and establish its protocols in this region. Our immediate success rate is over 99%, she asserted.
During the occasion, around dozen of the donors, who donated their kidneys to save the lives of their beloved ones, were also felicitated . Those felicitated included; Swatantra and Shobha , both mothers who donated kidneys to save life of their respective sons ; Sudha , Surjit Kaur , Kuljeet Kaur Paramjeet Kaur, Supinder Kaur and Jarnial Kaur who all donated kidneys to save the life of their better halves; Prakarti, a young girl who donated to her mother; Pawan Taneja and Kuldip Singh who donated kidney to save their respective wives’ life and Karan who saved his sister life, by donating his kidney.
Dr Avinash Srivastava said that around 1.5-lakh Indians suffer from kidney failure every year. However, only 5, 000 get a transplant due to lack of available organs. While Spain has 35.1 organ donors per million, Britain 27, USA 26, Canada 14, and Australia 11, India has only 0.08 donors per million. All efforts should be made to sensitize the society towards this noble act.” Dr further adds, “Swap transplant is like any normal transplant surgery with the only difference being that if the recipient from one pair is compatible with the donor from the other pair, and vice versa– the hospital may arrange for a ‘swap’ for two simultaneous transplants to take place. This allows two transplant candidates to receive organs and two donors to give organs, though the original recipient/donor pairs were unable to do so with each other.”
Dr Aruna Bhoy, Facility Director shared that as per data, there are only 1500 nephrologist across the country against heavy disease burden; we have strong training program for dialysis technicians and nurses. Trained and experience paramedical staffs under the supervision of specialists can cater to the patients more efficiently.