Modern life, with its relentless pace, processed diets, and mounting stress, has proven catastrophic for kidney health. Chronic renal disease is no longer a condition confined to the elderly or the infirm-it is claiming younger lives with alarming frequency, and the numbers are rising exponentially. In Jammu & Kashmir, this grim reality has collided with a bureaucratic failure of staggering proportions, placing thousands of dialysis-dependent patients on the precipice of a humanitarian disaster. Dialysis is unlike any routine medical procedure. It is not a one-time intervention but a recurring, time-intensive necessity – typically required thrice weekly – without which a patient simply cannot survive. Government hospitals, already stretched beyond capacity, are structurally incapable of absorbing the full burden of this swelling patient population. Recognising this gap, the Ayushman Bharat-Sehat scheme opened the door for private dialysis centres to step in, offering kidney patients access to life-saving treatment without financial ruin. For countless families clutching their Golden Cards, it was nothing short of a miracle.
That miracle is now unravelling. The Private Hospitals and Dialysis Centres Association of J&K has sounded a desperate alarm: private centres across the Union Territory are on the verge of closure, crippled by hundreds of crores in unpaid dues from the State Health Agency – some of which have been pending since 2021. Dialysers, tubing sets, and essential medicines cannot be procured. Vendors have cut off supplies. Skilled doctors, technicians, and nursing staff are working without salaries, sustained only by conscience, while their own livelihoods crumble. The cruel irony is impossible to overlook. These centres stepped forward in good faith, functioning as extended arms of the Government’s healthcare machinery when public hospitals could not cope. They treated the poorest patients, administered the most time-consuming procedures, and kept their doors open long after reimbursements ceased. Asking them to continue indefinitely on trust alone is neither reasonable nor just.
Assurances have been paid in abundance; action has been conspicuously absent. The Government must recognise that recurring operational costs do not pause while bureaucratic deliberations drag on. Every passing week of inaction is a week closer to closure, which means patients without dialysis sessions. The Government launched this scheme with a solemn promise. It empanelled these centres. It directed vulnerable citizens towards them. That trust must not be shattered. Emergency release of pending dues, a fixed reimbursement timeline, and a shift to accountable payment mechanisms are the only way forward.
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