New Delhi: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will set up dialysis centres at seven of its hospitals under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, with up to 70 dialysis machines to be installed across the facilities, officials said.Officials said the initiative aims to make regular dialysis more accessible and affordable for kidney patients, many of whom require treatment two or three times a week on an ongoing basis. “Under the proposed arrangement, patients will not be charged more than govt rate under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), while beneficiaries covered under the scheme will receive treatment completely cashless,” said officials.The seven centres will be set up at Swami Dayanand Hospital in Dilshad Garden, Balak Ram Hospital in Timarpur, UPHC Fatehpur Beri, Mata Gujri Hospital in Tilak Nagar, Purnima Sethi Multi Speciality Hospital in Kalkaji, Hindu Rao Hospital in Malka Ganj, and Veer Savarkar Arogya Sansthan in Karawal Nagar. Each centre can have up to 10 machines.Once fully operational, these machines are expected to provide around 42,000 dialysis sessions a year, assuming two shifts of operation. Officials estimate that around 350 patients could receive regular dialysis at any given time, with each machine serving around four to six patients requiring two to three sessions a week.While the project is at the tendering stage, under the arrangement, the private partner will bear the entire cost of dialysis machines, manpower and operation of the centres. “MCD will provide space at a nominal rent of Re 1 per month and water, while the centres will be selected through an open e-tender process,” said officials.“Bidders will compete on the basis of the maximum discount they can offer on this rate, rather than being allowed to charge above it. The proposed centres are spread across Delhi to reduce patients’ travel time for repeated treatment,” said the official.The project also includes several safeguards. A uniform rate will be applicable at all centres and will have to be prominently displayed in both Hindi and English. No additional amount can be charged for dialysers, tubing or consumables.Officials said only single-use dialysers would be permitted. The centres would have new dialysis machines, water treatment plants and operate under nephrologist supervision. The private operators will also be subject to penalties and audits, with a live dashboard proposed for monitoring the functioning of the centres and services being provided to patients. A facility for CT and MRI would also be developed on a PPP basis at Rajan Babu Hospital and Swami Dayanand Hospital.
