I am happy to participate in the Launch of Kidney Care Project of the CARE Foundation. I greet Dr Soma Raju and his team for undertaking this mission. In December 2000 Dr Krishnam Raju invited me for the CSI meeting of the next year. Every time I come to CARE hospitals I am witnessing a transformation in the making. When last month Dr Krishnam Raju briefed me about the plight of people, particularly retired ones, needing dialysis I readily decided to meet all of you and witness the launch of a Noble Mission.

There has been a big infusion of technology in healthcare. Newer materials and instrumentation have provided unprecedented methods of treatment to the medical experts. Hopes of the patients have also been proportionally raised. In situations where physicians were giving up, life can be easily prolonged now. But it is not without costly intervention as well as maintenance through expensive drugs. Chronic Kidney disease is one such situation.

With the growing incidence of Hypertension and Diabetes, chronic Kidney disease has increased manifold. As many as 15 people in 1000 have Kidney disease. Approximately hundred thousand patients go into End Stage kindney disease every year in India, essentially requiring either dialysis or kidney transplantation. Not even 5,000 kidney transplantations are done in India and more than 60,000 patients fail to continue with dialysis due to financial constraints and lose their lives within a year in a slow and very painful manner.

I was thinking what could a society do to help those who cannot afford life-saving treatments? After all, poverty is a social issue and somewhere everyone who is financially comfortable and living successfully owes an existential debt to those who are poor and helpless. Would collection of donation and subsidy on dialysis suffice? It would of course help few people but the issue is larger and a bit complicated. I think I can use this forum of medical experts and the presence of a large number of enlightened citizens to start a discussion on this important issue.

India has undergone a transformation after Independence. We have achieved food sufficiency, a sustained growth rate of our economy and a certain level of technological core competence, particularly in the IT sector. However, the same cannot be said about the medical sector. Our hospitals have not grown to the first-rate standards and the few good ones are very expensive and beyond the reach of common man. As an economy, we have to provide concessions and incentives to the healthcare sector as provided to other growth driven sectors. That is how the Healthcare sector can make an impact on the society.

I feel, it is time that we pay adequate attention to the healthcare sector in all aspects?education, training, capital investment and above all societal responsibility towards poor. Also, initiatives like Little Heart Project and Kidney Care Projects are necessary to create awareness amongst people about the need to help those who are in pain.

I am happy to learn that Kidney Care Project which is being launched today will work to improve the access to chronic disease services to all the needy patients, by providing different modalities of care. The resolve to design and make available education material in prevention and early diagnosis of kidney disease is commendable. We also need to work hard as a society to create awareness about cadaver kidney transplant which can be a solution to save many lives since there are 80,000 accidental deaths taking place in the country every year. Simultaneously, we have to work persistenly to find a long term solution to kidney transplant through stem cell research. I would request Dr Rajasekhar Chakravorthy and his team to consider creation of a mobile kidney care clinic which can go to rural areas and provide the facility to the needy patients.

I am sure with all the noble human beings here, no kidney patient will feel alone. Your benevolence and generosity will uplift the sagging spirits of the patients and enable him to forget his pain. I congratulate Dr Rajasekhar Chakravorthy and his team for this noble mission. My best wishes to all the members of CARE hospitals success in their mission of providing quality healthcare to the needy irrespective of their financial capacity.

May God bless you.

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