The Hindu : Front Page : Transplant licences of three Chennai hospitals suspended

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Transplant licences of three Chennai hospitals suspended

Ramya Kannan

Records pertaining to transplant surgeries could not be traced, says official

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has suspended the licences of three hospitals under the Transplantation of Human Organs (TOHO) Act.

This move follows the arrest of a Chennai-based nephrologist Palani Ravichandran along with four Mumbai based-touts he was colluding with by the Mumbai police last week.

The hospitals he was working with when he was apprehended have now lost their transplantation licences: two branches of the Bharathiraja Speciality Hospitals and St. Thomas Hospital in St. Thomas Mount.

A three-member team of doctors had been appointed by the Authorisation Committee to scrutinise the documents of these hospitals relating to kidney transplants performed over the years. However, in all three hospitals, records pertaining to transplant surgeries could not be traced.

While at St. Thomas Hospital, the team could retrieve some documents pertaining to dialysis and post-operative procedures, at the Bharathiraja Hospital branches, the authorities could not produce any files pertaining to transplants.

“We are viewing seriously the inability to produce the relevant documents to the team appointed by the Authorisation Committee.

Practically, this suspension is only the first step towards cancellation of transplantation licences of these hospitals,” Director of Medical Services Bawa Fathurudeen told The Hindu.

The investigating team has arrived at the conclusion that Dr. Ravichandran has secreted all documents pertaining to the illegal kidney transplantations in his personal possession.

In April this year, the State for the first time exercised the provisions of the TOHO Act; it withdrew the licences of two hospitals for organ transplantation and briefly suspended those of 13 other hospitals.

Serious charges

While 13 hospitals regained their licences after setting right certain “minor documentation issues,” the current suspensions were based on more serious charges, Dr. Fathurudeen said.

Irregularities missed

When asked how the State could have missed the irregularities in the three hospitals during the raids conducted in April, he said that they might have been missed in the random investigation.

The Authorisation Committee is also keen on questioning Dr. Ravichandran, who is under arrest.

Health authorities believe that investigating the doctor would reveal where documents had been kept and the modus operandi used by touts in channelling organs sales for live, unrelated kidney transplants.

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