Lately the Health Minister has submitted the final draft of the health policy to the Prime Minister. The draft covers some important aspects of the country's healthcare system. This marks a big step in the progress in the health sector.

Yet. the limitations in the field of specialised treatment of certain serious diseases of the heart and the kidney can neither be ignored.

There is no doubt that the country has achieved some significant progress in providing facilities for diagnosis and treatment of the diseases in these fields both in the public and private sectors. Yet some of the affected people feel that such facilities in the country and particularly in the city, are not quite upto the standard. Hence there has been a tendency these days among some well-off people to go abroad for better treatment. Even some cities in the neighbouring country attract such patients.

Effective treatment for serious heart and kidney diseases require modern and sophisticated diagnostic tools. Some public sector institutions like the Institute of Cardio-vascular Diseases and the CMH in the city are said to have such facilities.

Some well-known private clinics reportedly have such facilities too for treating heart

diseases. Although fixing pacemakers or ballooning angioplasties or angiograms are more or less common as part of specialised treatment, many believe the ballooning involves some risk. This may be a layman's view.

Recently, as per newspaper reports, a Bangladeshi heart surgeon, in Paris, did some angiograms in a private heart clinic near the city, while on a visit here. Of course, with such facilities, heart surgeons in the city have reportedly been doing such operations from time to time. Although by-pass surgery is considered a more elaborate procedure, there are instances of such successful surgery with the available expertise and medical infrastructure.

The number of kidney diseases is also said to be quite high in the country although no statistics are available on the number of kidney patients requiring renal dialysis as a means of survival. Reportedly, there are a total of about 29 dialysis machines used by both the public and private sectors in the city.

A private renal clinic situated on Road No. 8 of the Dhanmondi residential area reportedly owns 13 of the machines.

It is understood that this clinic has been doing good humanitarian service with the

help of these machines. But the clinic is said to be having problems in its expansion programme. With the limited space in which the clinic is functioning there seems to be little scope for its expansion, although the owners have necessary funds and other supports for rendering greater service to the patients. Hence the need for shifting that renal clinic to a more commodious site.

Such facilities in some public hospitals and private clinics are not good enough to produce significant impact. Cases of kidney transplants, the last hope, are said to be very few. The survival rate in such transplants at the aforesaid clinic, for instance, is hard to determine.

Usually the well-off patients wanting such transplants tent to go abroad.

In this country it may take more time to build up necessary medical infrastructure with professional expertise to perform kidney transplants.

The point is quite obvious that for the specialised treatment of heart and kidney diseases considerable costs are involved for the affected parlies. But the cost may greatly be reduced by setting up the required standard in surgical expertise with all supporting facilities in the country. The objective does not seem hard to achieve.