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A national programme providing free dialysis to poor patients with kidney failure at district hospitals, funded through the National Health Mission.
The Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) is a central initiative to provide free haemodialysis services to poor patients suffering from end-stage kidney disease. It was announced in the Union Budget of 2016 and is implemented as part of the National Health Mission, with dialysis centres set up in district hospitals. The programme is delivered largely through a public-private partnership model: the district hospital provides space, power, water and staff quarters, while a private partner installs and operates the dialysis machines under an agreed rate. Services are free for eligible poor patients, with states responsible for defining and identifying eligibility.
Type: SchemeAnnounced in the Union Budget 2016; implemented under the National Health Mission
Provides free haemodialysis to eligible poor patients with end-stage kidney disease
Dialysis centres are located in district hospitals, bringing the service closer to where patients live
Delivered through a public-private partnership — the government supplies space and utilities, a private partner supplies and operates machines
Has been extended beyond haemodialysis to include peritoneal dialysis in a later expansion of the programme
Nodal ministry: Health and Family Welfare
Frequency: A regular item in SSC and Banking General Awareness on government health schemes, and relevant to UPSC Mains GS-II on health governance.
When the kidneys fail, they can no longer filter waste and excess fluid from the blood. Dialysis performs that function artificially, and a patient with end-stage kidney disease typically needs it two or three times a week, indefinitely, unless a transplant is possible. That frequency is what makes it a policy problem rather than a purely clinical one. A treatment needed twice weekly for life cannot be delivered from a distant city hospital: the travel cost, the wage loss and the sheer repetition push families into debt or cause them to abandon treatment altogether. Locating dialysis at the district hospital addresses distance, and making it free addresses cost — the two barriers that determine whether a patient actually completes treatment.
A medicine that must be taken twice a week for life is useless if collecting it means a day's journey and a day's lost wages each time.
Chronic kidney disease is a growing burden in India, driven substantially by rising diabetes and hypertension, and its treatment is among the most catastrophic health expenses a household can face. Before the programme, dialysis was concentrated in private facilities and large city hospitals, which meant that for most patients the effective options were ruinous expenditure or no treatment. The PPP design was a pragmatic response to a capacity problem: government hospitals had buildings and staff but neither the machines nor the technical expertise to run dialysis units at scale, while private operators had both but no reason to locate in district towns. Pairing them puts the service where the patients are. The main criticisms concern quality assurance, uneven availability across states, and the fact that a programme treating kidney failure does not address the diabetes and hypertension that produce it.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Nodal ministry for the programme
National Health Mission (NHM)
The umbrella mission under which the programme is funded and implemented
State Health Societies
Implement the programme at state level and define eligibility for free treatment
Announced in Union Budget 2016; under the National Health Mission
Free haemodialysis for poor patients with end-stage kidney disease
Located in district hospitals
Public-private partnership: government provides space and utilities, private partner provides machines and operation
Nodal ministry: Health and Family Welfare
Later expanded to include peritoneal dialysis
It was announced in the Union Budget of 2016 and is implemented as part of the National Health Mission by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In district hospitals, so that patients who need dialysis two or three times a week do not have to travel to distant city hospitals for each session.
Through a public-private partnership. The district hospital provides space, power, water and staff quarters, while a private partner installs and operates the dialysis machines at an agreed rate.
Poor patients with end-stage kidney disease. States define and identify eligibility for free treatment within the programme's framework.