India’s biggest kidney dialysis hospital to offer free treatment & food to all patients

In what is nothing less than a divine blessing for people suffering from end-stage renal/kidney diseases Guru Harikshan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Kidney Dialysis Hospital — one of India’s biggest and newly inaugurated hi-tech hospital will soon be offering free treatment and food to the patients.

The first of its kind 100-bedded hospital equipped with the latest kidney dialysis machines imported from Germany will operate from the Banglasahib Gurdwara premises and will be managed by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee

According to Manjinder Singh Sirsa President, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, the 100 bedded hospital will be equipped with 50 beds and 50 chairs. This is because, during a dialysis session, patients can sit or lie on a bed, read, listen to music, use the mobile phone or sleep.

Hence the hospital will have the capacity to perform dialysis on up to 500 patients on a rotational basis every day.

Dialysis

In medical parlance, dialysis is performed to remove excess water, solutes, and toxins from the blood of people whose kidneys cannot perform these functions naturally. Usually, most people need 3 sessions of hemodialysis a week – each session lasting around 4 hours. This can be done at home or in the hospital. Even those who are admitted to the hospital can go home shortly afterwards.

The dialysis session

Two thin needles are inserted into the AV fistula. One needle slowly removes blood from the body and transfers it to a machine called a dialyser or dialysis machine which has a series of membranes or filters. The membranes filter waste products from the blood and pass them into a special liquid called the dialysate fluid. The used dialysate fluid is pumped out of the dialyser, and the filtered blood is passed back into the body through the second needle. Haemodialysis is not painful, but some people feel a bit sick and dizzy and may have muscle cramps during the procedure because of the rapid changes in blood fluid levels in the body during the treatment.

Guru Harikshan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Kidney Dialysis Hospital

Managed by some of the best-known Nephrologists, the Guru Harikshan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Kidney Dialysis Hospital will not have any cash counter, just a registration desk for the patients to check-in for the treatment or get discharged– without paying any money. The patients who wish to avail the hospital’s services will be able to get online registration by visiting the DCGMC website.

Another unique feature of the hospital located in the Gurdwara Banglasahib premises is that the patients and their caretakers will be offered free food from the Gurdwara langar. The patients will also have the privilege to listen to the Guruvani all day.  

Guru Har Krishan the eighth Sikh Guru

Significantly the Guru Harikshan Institute of Medical Sciences – is named after Guru Har Krishan the eighth (of the total 10) Sikh Gurus. Guru Harikshan was the youngest (five years old) and the shortest-lived Sikh Guru who reigned for only 2 years, 5 months and 24 days and died of smallpox even before reaching his eighth birthday.  He was succeeded by Guru Tegh Bahadur – the ninth Sikh Guru.

In those smallpox and cholera had spread in the city of Delhi. A commonly held belief in those days was that anyone who bathes in the well of what is now Banglasahib Gurdwara would be fully cured.

Let’s hope this proves true in today’s context, as well.