Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai has provided about N180, 000 subsidy to patients battling kidney failure.

Before, patients with kidney failure would have to spend about N200, 000 to  have a check on dialysis machine.

Concerned by this, the governor who purchased and installed eight dialysis machines, said patients can now access those machines at the cost of N20, 000.

The state commissioner of Health, Prof. Jonathan Andrew Nok told journalists yesterday that the governor was also considering sending a bill to the state House of Assembly to have a health care insurance policy that would cover every human being in the state.

“For the scourging disease of kidney failure and other forms of diseases and the cost of trying to manage patients with kidney diseases, government purchased eight dialysis machines which have been installed at Barau Dikko Hospitals, Yusuf Danstoho Hospitals, Gwamna Awan Hospitals, General Hospital in Kafanchan as well as the Gambo Sawaba Hospital in Zaria.

“The state government has been able to inject subsidy in it. Now with only 20, 000 patients can be able to access the dialysis machines.

“We have been able to procure dialysis consumables worth N30 million which we have dispatched to most of the hospitals across the state,” said Prof. Nok.

On the bill, Nok said it would cater for the need of persons who cannot access medical care because of poverty. He said, nobody should die in Kaduna State because such a person does not have money to buy drugs.

According to him, work at the 300 bed hospital at the Millennium City which was abandoned has commenced in earnest and has reached 70 per cent completion.

“We hope the hospital will be commissioned in 10 Months time.”