Providing Peritoneal Dialysis Facility at Homes

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is planning to offer peritoneal dialysis facility to kidney patients at their homes under the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP).

With the initiative, the government aims to achieve equity in patient access to home-based peritoneal dialysis and reduce the overall cost of care to the system by focusing on efficient leveraging of resources.

Peritoneal Dialysis

• Peritoneal Dialysis uses the lining of the abdomen called peritoneum, and a cleaning solution called dialysate to cleanse the blood.
• The blood is cleaned without being removed from the body. The peritoneum acts as a natural filter. The dialysate solution is injected into the abdomen that encourages filtration such that the waste is transferred from the blood to the solution.
• Since the peritoneal dialysis avoids the substantial costs of infrastructure set up and maintenance and staffing, reduces the demand on the healthcare system and offers patient autonomy the government is considering the inclusion of peritoneal dialysis in the ambit of the National Dialysis Program.
• Providing Peritoneal Dialysis at home also reduces overall out-of-pocket expenditure by saving the wage loss of the patient and his attendant, which was not possible in haemodialysis patients requiring to travel to the district level twice/thrice weekly.
• But young children especially those below five years are often unsuitable for HD.

Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme

Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme rolled out in 2016 provides for free dialysis services to the poor. It was initiated as part of the National Health Mission.

The service procedures are provided free of cost for patients from below poverty line (BPL) economic group. The non-BPL patients can avail the benefit of accessing the services at the district hospitals at the same rates as paid by the Government for the BPL patient.