Hyderabad, November 04: Three months ago, Parveen Begum took her 11 years old son Feroz to Niloufer Hospital in the city, seeking treatment for thalassaemia under Arogyasri insurance scheme.
The hospital ran some tests and told her to take him back since the hospital did not have facilities or necessary medicines.
“My son was there for 15 days and was diagnosed with thalassaemia. Later, we were given some tablets under the Arogyasri Scheme but were told not come back again as they did not have a separate unit for treating such patients,” said Parveen whose husband Afzal Khan is an auto driver.
The Rajiv Arogyasri scheme when first launched provided a ray of hope to poor patients who could not afford expensive treatments.
Though the insurance scheme includes thalassaemia in its ambit, in most of the hospitals where the scheme is available, the treatment is not offered.
Hospitals also sometimes do not render treatment since it does not fetch money like heart surgeries and other complicated surgeries do.
Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder that affects haemoglobin production.
Over 40,000 new victims are diagnosed with it every year in India.
Patients require blood transfusion once in a fortnight in addition to daily intake of Asunra and Kefler in tablet form.
The expensive tablets help remove excess iron that gets deposited in the patient’s organs due to regular blood transfusion.
Kasarla Srinivas from Adilabad District, whose 12-yearold son Ranjit is thalassaemic, said, “Singareni government hospital neither has a haematologist nor medicines to treat my son.” Arogyasri, according to Rajiv Arogyasri Health Care Trust CEO Babu, covers only therapy and diagnosis and not blood transfusion.
The only centre in AP treating poor thalassaemia patients is the Thalassaemia and Sickle Cell Society (TSCS) in old city. Set up in 1998 with 20 patients, it provides 30 per cent subsidy on medicines while running on donations hard to come by.
Almost all the TSCS board members are parents of thalassaemia children.
About 20-25 patients are treated at TSCS every day.
The centre has a blood bank, ‘TSCS Venkaiah Memorial Blood Bank’, which provides safe blood free of cost. TSCS board members feel that if the government can provide additional staff and free supply of medicines, it can serve 45-50 patients every day.
–Agencies