Aisa Khatun, a resident of Bahudarmai Municipality in Parsa, needs to undergo dialysis twice a week. On Thursday morning, Khatun was scheduled for dialysis at Narayani Hospital, a government hospital in Birgunj, but her session was cancelled due to a lack of chemicals used in dialysis.

“The hospital issued a notice which stated that it would stop providing dialysis services from Wednesday due to a lack of chemicals. The hospital did not inform us about the closure of the services beforehand,” said Khatun. “My health condition will deteriorate if I do not get dialysis on time. I am very worried now.”

Seeta Kumari, 51, of Malhani in Mahagadhimai Municipality was also at Narayani Hospital to get dialysis on Thursday. But due to the closure of dialysis services at the hospital, she had to go to the National Medical College, a private hospital in Birgunj, to seek treatment.

“We had to pay Rs 7,000 for a dialysis session at the private hospital,” said Kumari’s son, Bir Kumar.

Narayani Hospital in Birgunj provided free dialysis services to 18 to 20 kidney patients on a daily basis. Dr Madan Kumar Upadhayay, medical superintendent at the hospital, said the services have been closed due to a lack of chemicals used in dialysis.

“We have been looking for the chemical for the past one month,” said Upadhyay. “We had to stop the services since our stock ran out.”

Upadhyay also said that the hospital has deployed an employee to procure the chemical.

“We are making efforts to resume dialysis services soon,” he said.

In the current fiscal year, Premier Suppliers had been awarded the contract to supply chemicals for dialysis to the hospital. Harendra Yadav, chief at the hospital’s pharmacy, said the supplier company has already provided money to the chemical company, but the hospital is yet to receive the consignment.

“If we procure the chemical soon, we will be able to resume the services by Friday,” Yadav said.

However, patients and their relatives blamed the shortage on the hospital’s negligence.

“Other hospitals in the district are running dialysis services without a glitch. There’s a shortage in Narayani Hospital only,” said Khatun.

Meanwhile, the CT scan machine of the hospital has also not been working for the last 10 months. The Department of Health had provided the machine to the hospital two and a half years ago.