NephroPlus, India’s leading kidney care chain, has invested Rs.1.1 crore to set up its first stand alone dialysis centre in Karnataka at Bengaluru and the second in the country after its facility at Hyderabad. Now the dialysis major is ramping up plans to open another 100 centre which could include formats of standalone or dedicated units within existing hospitals.

The dialysis chain providing services like hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplants had raised funds from Bessemer Venture Partners. While the stand alone centres require a little over Rs.1 crore, those units under hospital partnership model require funds to the tune of around Rs.80 lakh. It plans to partner with leading hospitals and medical colleges to set up more centres over the next 12 months in Karnataka.

Currently, there are 11 centres of NephroPlus located at Hyderabad in Banjara Hills, East of Marredpally, Santosh Nagar’s Nightingale Hospital, ESIC Multi Specialty Hospital at Erragadda and Adarshnagar’s Mediciti Hospital. In the districts of Andhra Pradesh, it is set up within SVS Medical College in Mahabubnagar and Kakinada’s Surya Global Hospital. In Karnataka three at Bengaluru cover Koshy’s Hospital, VIMS Hospital in Marathahall, and its new standalone centre at Basaveshwara Nagar. In north India, NephroPlus is at Pushpanjali Hospital, Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Since its inception in 2011, one lakh dialysis are performed with zero cross infection.

“In Karnataka , renal care is in a shambles because only less than 10 per cent of the 10,000 patients undergo around 70,000 sessions every month. However, the irony is that most of them do not have access to quality renal care. This makes them access facilities outside Bengaluru,” stated Sandeep Gudibanda, co-founder and director, NephroPlus Kidney Care Clinics.

As part of the their commitment to renal patients, the Bengaluru’s standalone centre also launched 'A Heart For Your Kidneys' campaign to educate the public on the need to keep kidneys healthy.

The Basaveshwara Nagar standalone centre has 20 bed capacity. Dialysis is a four-hour duration procedure and the service is offered at Rs.990. There are also modules like nocturnal dialysis and short daily dialysis apart from the regular dialysis. In the initial phase, the unit will operate with 10 beds which will be scalable up to 20 beds in the coming months. Around 15 doctors and support staff will be present at the centre to ensure best diagnosis and treatment for patients, said Gudibanda.

“Unlike in the developed economies, renal patients in India view kidney failure as the end of life. At NephroPlus, our patient-friendly approach and treatment will ensure that they are able live a fulfilling life,” said Dr Anoop M, senior nephrologist and medical director, NephroPlus, Basaveshwara Nagar.

There is a serious shortfall of nephrologists estimated at 8,000 in the country as against the current availability of 1,200. Now in order to ensure qualified support staff, NephroPlus in March 2012 opened a training institute ‘Enpidia’ in Hyderabad for dialysis technicians and nurses.