For over a year, new and expensive dialysis machines installed at the Kuliyapitiya Base Hospital, are idling due to the lack of trained doctors.
A large sum of public funds had been invested for the machinery, but it had all been in vain, Kurunegala District Senior Divisional Secretary W. E. Jayathilake said, while speaking to the media on Saturday.
He said that at present, there were about 27,530 kidney patients countrywide and of them, there were around 16,682 kidney patients in the North Central Province.
About 1,118 kidney patients had died in 2017, in the North Central Province. Due to those reasons, health authorities should take steps to utilise the medical equipment for the benefit of underprivileged kidney patients who seek medical treatment at government hospitals in future.