Haemophilia treatment takes a hit as govt delays funds

Since the last tranche of haemophilia funds was released in January this year,factors 7,8,and 9 —- which are used for treatment of patients —- are not available in medical colleges such as SGPGI Lucknow,KGMU Lucknow,SN Medical College,Agra; MLB Medical College,Jhansi; MLN Medical College,Allahabad; as well as Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College,Aligarh Muslim University.

“We do not have factors for the past three years or more as the state has refused to give us funds for haemophilia because we are funded by the central government. The DG Health recently wrote a letter to me saying so. I am going to take up the issue with the state government soon,” said Dr Tabassum Sahab,HOD of paediatrics at AMU.

While several patients have been returned from these medical colleges due to non-availability of factors,one of the patients,34-year-old Mohammad Aamir from Kanpur,succumbed to the disease on July 11. He had been rushed to SGPGI Lucknow from Kanpur in serious condition and even after administering the required factor at SGPGI,he could not be saved.

“He died because he had come to SGPGI in a very serious condition. Although the required Factor 7 was administered to him,he could not be saved,” said Dr Shubha Phadke,professor of medical genetics at the institute.

DG Health Dr D K Srivastava said that the funds for all the medical colleges had been released last week. “The drafts of funds for SGPGI and KGMU are in the process of being made. Otherwise funds have been released in all medical colleges,” said Dr Srivastava.

Delay in funds for haemophilia patients has been a regular feature in the state. It was only with regular directions of the high court that the state government has released funds for haemophilia in instalments. Between January 2012 and January 2013,there was a delay of 11 months before any funds were released by the health department. On January 22,2013,the last tranche of Rs 4.17 crore was released to the medical colleges.

According to health department officials,the core committee of haemophilia,which decides on release of funds to medical colleges,met in April and sent its proposal for Rs 3.95 crore to the government for approval. The government took over two months to sanction the proposal,and the final sanctions amounted to Rs 2 crore only.