The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Government moves to strengthen cadaver transplant programme

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Sunday, Sep 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Government moves to strengthen cadaver transplant programme

Ramya Kannan

Online organ registry, panels for liver, heart and kidneys to be set up

Criteria for organ sharing among hospitals to be evolved
Nod for Non Transplant Organ Retrieval Centres

CHENNAI: Three government orders passed on Friday seek to strengthen the cadaver transplant programme in the State by setting up an online organ registry, evolving a criteria for organ sharing among hospitals and providing for Non Transplant Organ Retrieval Centres (NTORC).

In a decisive move to provide a fillip to the flailing programme, the government will create, within three to six months, an Advisory Committee headed by the Health Secretary and four sub committees, one each for liver, heart, kidneys and other organs. A convener for the cadaver transplant programme and a coordinator based at the Government General Hospital will also be appointed.

All hospitals approved for transplantation of human organs and willing to participate in this programme will upload details of their waiting list of organ recipients online. The online database will maintain prioritisation lists for each hospital, all hospitals combined, and all private hospitals. In terms of prioritising organ sharing, the G.O. specifies that if there is a patient who is a multi-organ recipient, then he or she will gain precedence over others.

Any individual needing organ transplantation can register with one hospital under the cadaver transplant programme. While he or she is free to move to other hospitals, they can be registered with only one hospital at a given point of time.

Whenever a deceased donor becomes available in a hospital, it shall contact the transplant coordinator, who will make the allocations based on established criteria. Non-governmental organisations promoting cadaver donation such as MOHAN Foundation and National Network for Organ Sharing will assist in this arrangement to ensure that most organs are used, P.W.C. Davidar, Special Secretary, Health, told The Hindu.

The new set of directions was arrived at after a series of consultations with specialists, transplant centres, professors, and NGOs over the past months, he said.

Recognising the fact that cadaver donation is done with altruistic motives, the G.O. specifies the need to have transparency in operations. All transplant centres are required to maintain surgery records for a minimum period of ten years.

They are also required to ensure the availability of a counselling department in-house to help the grieving relatives.

A key clause governs unnecessary media exposure to cases while, at the same time, allowing for messages on the positive aspects of organ donation to be disseminated. No transplant centre can reveal the identity or attract any form of media publicity before the recipients are discharged.

The concept of Non Transplant Organ Retrieval Centres has been introduced in the State for the very first time. The Appropriate Authority, under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, will register all hospitals that have a minimum of 25 beds along with an Operation Theatre and Intensive Care Unit as NTORCs. These hospitals are permitted to certify brain death as per the procedures already specified and, thereafter, remove organs, but not perform transplantation.

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