The Newz Radar
SHIMLA: There are a mere three nephrologists in six medical colleges of Himachal Pradesh to treat lakhs of kidney patients in the state. This is despite the fact that more than 25,000 kidney patients reach hospitals every month in the state for treatment. Not only this, 10 per cent of the patients on an average need a kidney transplant every year, according to a survey.
Of the three nephrologists, a senior doctor is posted at Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College and Hospital at Tanda in Kangra district. The other two junior doctors are posted at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital in Shimla.
In the absence of sufficient nephrologists, no special OPDs of nephrology are conducted in any medical college of the state. The lakhs of kidney patients, as such, have to make do with doctors from urology and medicine departments.
Meanwhile, the increasing incidence of kidney disease has led to concern among the people in the state. Doctors consider high blood pressure and diabetes as the main reasons behind the rising cases of kidney ailments.
When the first kidney transplant was done in Himachal on August 12, 2019, the head of Urology Department of AIIMS-Delhi Dr Virendra Bansal had, while citing a research, said that kidneys of people in Himachal were getting damaged due to high sugar consumption.
At the IGMC, which is the state’s premier hospital, only five kidney transplants have been done in three years, and that too under the supervision of the doctors from AIIMS-Delhi.
