HYDERABAD: Joining the league of mosques with attached clinics and oldage homes, a mosque at Langar Houz in the city has opened a dialysis centre, on Thursday. The facility is free for kidney patients across caste and religion. Initially, 30 patients will be treated a week.

This is perhaps the first mosque in India where kidney patients are treated with a full-fledged haemodialysis facility. The management of Masjid-e-Mohammadia parted with some of its free space to set up the unit that will benefit mostly patients from lower strata of society.

Helping Hand Foundati-on and SEED, USA, are jointly running the centre. They have already set up six primary health centres and an oldage home in mosques. Syed Mazharuddin Hussaini, executive director of SEED, opened the unit on Thursday.

It also has a high quality clinical care equipment and facility to manage onsite emergencies. Dr Shoeb Ali Khan, leading consultant nephrologist, is heading the unit that works between 8 am and 8 pm.

“Equipped with five Fresenius machines, the centre will add five more machines in three months,” said Mujtaba Hasan Askari, managing trustee of Helping Hand Foundation. Askari said Hyderabad has 50,000 patients suffering from chronic kidney disease.

 

It will help save the poor patients of 1 crore of critical healthcare expenses a year. “We have invested 45 lakh for the initial setup through donors. The operational cost is 2 lakh,” Askari said.