Jaitley Budget proposes National Dialysis Programme

The 2016 Budget of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday noted that a massive number of 4,950 dialaysis sessions take place in India every year. To ensure that dialysis happens in every district in the country, Jaitley introduced the National Dialysis Programme under which he proposed to cut customs Duty for the dailaysis equipment. However, the cost of medicines and equipment being high only half of the requirement of the patients is met every year. The is a vital input for dialysis and kidney patients who suffer on two counts. First they will have to travel to the hospitals for the dialysis and second the prohibitive cost. Each patient may have to get dilaysis done more than once a week. Hopefully the measure will benefit the kidney patients. The patients' travel part also needs to be taken care of. If ambulances are deployed in each city at susidised rates, it would help the dialysis patients and the patients in general a great deal.