Dialysis centres' payments stuck, treatment disrupted at some; government says dues will be cleared soon

Dialysis is a essential part of regular treatment for patients with kidney failure. They have to visit a hospital several times a week for it. The state conducts an average of 726 dialysis sessions every day for such patients.

Complaints have emerged that treatment was disrupted at some centres because bills of the service providers who bear the financial burden of the service remained unpaid. As a result, patients had to look for other centres for treatment. The administration has clarified that the government has speeded up the process of disbursing funds and plans to clear the remaining bills soon.

Under the Maha Dialysis scheme, patients receive free treatment through 108 centres in the state. About 66 of these are run by the Public Health Department. The remaining centres function through other arrangements.

In the financial year 2025-26, 1,69,281 dialysis sessions were held at centres of the government health system. Centres run through HLL held 95,607 sessions. Together, the total number of sessions for the year is 2,64,888. This is a count of sessions, not of individual patients.

The Health Department has said that when a centre's service stops because of a technical fault or another reason, arrangements are made to treat patients at nearby centres. Even so, complaints of service remaining shut for periods ranging from two days to two months raise questions about the efficiency of the system.

The service provider is paid about Rs 1,500 for one dialysis cycle. At this rate, a patient's treatment for a month costs about Rs 18,000. At a private hospital, one dialysis can cost Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000. There is therefore concern that if the government scheme's service stops, economically weaker patients will face a heavy burden.