KANNUR: Extending a helping hand to the kidney patients, the Kannur district panchayat would launch a project to provide free medicine to those who have undergone kidney transplantation. This will be implemented after including it in the annual plan of the district panchayat, said panchayat president KV Sumesh on Friday.Also, a pharmacy would be opened on the premise of the District Hospital to provide medicines at subsidized rate for kidney ailments , he said.In this meeting, the patients shared their painful experience. They told Sumesh they are unable to do any job as they survive on medicine owing to poor health, which would cost them around Rs 20000 a month.As per the available data, there are around 2500 patients who have undergone kidney transplantation in the district but the actual number might be even higher.This project will be implemented through Snehajyothi Kidney Patients’ Welfare Society under the district panchayat.Since there is no nephrologist in the District Hospital, the patients have to depend on the hospital outside the district and the general opinion was that steps should be initiated to appoint a nephrologist here. At the same time the dialysis centre in the hospital functions round the clock on six days a week and it has provided dialysis service around 60,000 times, said the district panchayat president.Apart from the District panchayat members, officials from the health Department also attended the meeting.

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