Dr. Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital waives off VAT from patients’ dialysis bills

Amidst rising cost in healthcare and essentials due to recent tax policies that came into effect, Sri Lanka’s largest private hospital Dr. Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives has decided not to charge Value Added Tax (VAT) from patients’ dialysis bills.

NFTH Chairman and Founder Dr. Neville Fernando said that his hospital decided to offer the benefit of ‘No VAT’ for patients’ dialysis bills and instead the VAT amount will be borne by the hospital. 

Dialysis is the artificial process of eliminating waste (diffusion) and unwanted water (ultrafiltration) from the blood. Human kidneys do this naturally. Some people, however, may have failed or damaged kidneys which cannot carry out the function properly may need dialysis. 

Dialysis may be used for patients who have become ill and have acute kidney failure which means the temporary loss of kidney function, or for fairly stable patients who have permanently lost kidney function. In short dialysis is the artificial replacement for lost kidney function (renal replacement therapy). Dialysis is also used to rapidly remove toxins or drugs from the blood.

Many patients with Chronic Kidney Diseases or diabetes have to undergo the dialysis process for several times upon medical treatment recommendations. Thus Dr. Fernando said that offering the ‘No Vat’ benefit for dialysis patients will reduce the patients’ cost of bills and will provide financial relief for them. 

He added that the ‘No VAT’ benefit for dialysis patients will benefit the entire nation at large since Sri Lanka has a large number of patients suffering from both Chronic Kidney Diseases and diabetes. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) has become a major health problem in rural Sri Lanka.

Previously confined to North Central and Uva Provinces, it is now prevalent in the Northwestern, Eastern, Southern and Central Provinces, and parts of the Northern Province. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 15% of the population aged 15-70 years in the North Central and Uva Provinces are affected with CKD. Over 22,000 deaths from the disease have been recorded in the Anuradhapura District in the North Central Province since CKD was first identified in 1991. Over 1,100 CKD patients are hospitalised per month in Sri Lanka and 300 deaths recorded per year. The death rate, however, is actually higher than this because many of the victims die at home. 

On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s diabetic rates are said to be highest in the region and the Diabetes Association of Sri Lanka (DASL) statistics reveals that there are nearly four million diabetics in the country.

Whilst efforts from both private and public healthcare initiatives are being rolled out nationwide to help Sri Lankans with diabetes and Chronic Kidney Diseases, NFTH has come with this worthy cause to offer financial relief to the patients at large solely committing towards hospital’s ‘Motto’ – ‘Caring Hands, Healing Hearts’. 

There are over 50 well qualified resident consultants serving at NFTH that has over a 1,000 bed capacity, being Sri Lanka’s largest private sector hospital. Dr. Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) is providing services in such a way that it is very much affordable to the greater majority of the local population who are average or lower middle income earners. NFTH always ensures to provide a superior quality of service at an affordable price as a socially responsible corporate citizen in Sri Lanka’s healthcare sector.