Hundreds of kidney patients and their relatives on Sunday staged demonstrations in front of Chattogram Medical College and Hospital(CMCH) protesting the recent hike in dialysis fee.

Holding banners they took position in front of the Kidney Dialysis Centre of the hospital in the morning and staged demonstrations demanding restoration of the previous fee for dialysis.

The protesters said a patient needs dialysis eight times in a month and they have to pay Tk 2,795 first two times and Tk 510 for each of the rest.

Now the hospital authorities raised the fee to Tk 2935 and the patients have to pay it four times and Tk 535 for each of the rest dialysis in a month, they said.

The protesters also threatened to continue their protest if the authorities concerned don’t take any steps to reinstate the previous fees immediately.

The protesters also confined Brigadier General Shamim Ahsan, director of the hospital, for three hours on Saturday for same reason.

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Shamim Ahsan said the hospital has the capacity to conduct dialysis of 6500 patients but the number has increased. As per the directives of the Health Ministry and due to the limitations, the authorities have to raise the dialysis fees.

Already a letter has been sent to the ministry concerned and the problem will be resolved soon, he said.

Kidney Dialysis Centre was launched at the hospital under the public-private partnership project in 2017 and it is now operating with 32 dialysis machines.

According to the agreement with the Ministry of Health, Indian company Sandor will continue its operations at this center for ten years. The institution will use government space for this. A patient has to pay about Tk 3000 against kidney dialysis each time.