Sabika Thap – In Nepal almost 10% out of 2.6 million people are suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease. Every year kidney disease is increasing by 10,000. Most kidney patients are not diagnosed until their last stage of failure. Some are under dialysis and some have done transplant and some are still under diagnosis. Chronic Kidney Disease is the most expensive disease compared to other chronic diseases. Dialysis cost around 20000-30000 depending upon the treatment they are going through. In Nepal there is facility of doing two type of dialysis and they are Haemodialysis and Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis.

As the cost of dialysis comes to 20000-30000 per month, average earning of Nepali is 20000-25000 every month. The patient is required to take the dialysis treatment 2-3 times a week. The only suggestion is Kidney transplant. Kidney transplant cost around 8 -10 lakhs in Nepal. The transplant can be only done if the donor is your family.

Couple of months back the government of Nepal issued 60% free on dialysis on both haemodialysis and CAPD. It was a lot help for the people of Nepal. People of Nepal sell their possessions and property for the treatment and lastly they are left with nothing. Some loose life too and some go for funds and donation for the treatment.

Finally after two years of doing CAPD on our own, the Government of Nepal issued 60% free on dialysis. It was not easy again because the requirement of documents and formalities. After processing the documents and rushing here and there we finally got 60% discount on CAPD. It has been couple of months I have been taking the facility provided by the government. On June 2073/74                           there was budget announcement made in Nepal. The speech says from shrawan onwards the dialysis treatment in Nepal will be free till the patient wants that would be lifelong. It is good news but not yet implemented in the country yet. It is a big positive change in the country as well a big relief for the kidney patients.

I am a kidney patient. I have been on dialysis for three years now. I had my renal failure on 2011. Firstly I was under haemodialysis for two weeks. Then I was informed about Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis. I went through the surgery inserting tube in my peritoneal. Then from 16^th January 2013 I started doing CAPD. It wasn’t cheap for me and my family. Due to lack of facility provided by the government in Nepal, my family had to arrange for all the cost which wasn’t easy and simple for us. We expense 32,000 rs per month for my Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal dialysis. It was difficult for us because same year we lost our father and two years back I had lost my mother already. It was very difficult time so we tried to collect help from friends, family and relatives. After two and half year of struggle we came across to know about the 60% free dialysis given by the government. It was easy once again. My brother had to run and rush for the documentation for the process to receive the facility. After a month the process was complete and I got the facility. Now I am under CAPD using the facility given by the government.

The news of free dialysis all life for me and patient like me is good news. After long time the government finally looked over us. But the free dialysis will encourage patient to go for dialysis rather than transplant. Dialysis is not the solution; it’s a treatment. The only solution is transplant and transplant is not cheap either. Dialysis makes a patient weaker and sicker and finally patient might end up giving life. Like me there is young generation suffering and dealing with the dialysis and going through physical pain every day. It leads us to frustration and also depression. The family or guardian might give up trying. We would want a transplant but we have no family to donate so are we only going be on dialysis for rest of our life? We are the coming up generation of the country and we are unable to go for transplant due to government law. There are people in country who wants to donate and there are desperate kidney patients who are ready to take but the government rules and law stop them. That leads to suffering of the patient along with their families, Frustration and depression of coming up generation and loss of lives of beloved ones.

The free dialysis is not the solution for us. If the government really wants to help the kidney patients, it should change the law and rules. The government and law should let people to donate whom they want and how they want apart being a family. Then it would be called good news for the kidney patient. We would say the government thought about us and 2.6 million Nepalese kidney patients’ hopes shall rise again.