The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : More hospitals to be part of organ-sharing network

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Wednesday, Mar 04, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

More hospitals to be part of organ-sharing network

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI: Members of the advisory committee of the Cadaver Transplant Programme have resolved to bring more hospitals into the organ-sharing network.

The committee, which met for the first time on Monday, reached a consensus that more hospitals registered themselves for kidney transplantation in the State must be persuaded to become part of the network so that there would be more fair distribution of organs retrieved from cadavers.

A total of 52 hospitals have registered themselves for kidney transplant. Of these, only 21 are part of the programme. “We want to bring all these hospitals under the programme. With the number of cadaver organ donations increasing, we need to have more hospitals participating in the programme,” V.K. Subburaj, Principal Secretary, Health, told The Hindu.

Involvement in the programme means harvesting organs from voluntary cadaver donors and sharing them with the State-wide network. Mr. Subburaj said that while there was the possibility of hospitals, which were not into transplantation, registering themselves as organ retrieval centres, not many had come forward.

The committee he chairs also decided to encourage this. According to a Government Order, any hospital with 25 beds and ICU facilities can register themselves to be a non-transplant retrieval centre. All that the hospitals are required to do is to write to the Director of Medical Services in the prescribed format, with a declaration of the facilities available. It was also decided to convene a meeting of all registered hospitals to spread awareness of the programme and the GOs that facilitate it.

The committee, comprising members of government hospitals performing transplantation, non-governmental organisations and the Directorates of Medical Education and Medical Services, discussed the modalities for prioritising organ allotment, Mr. Subburaj said.

One more question that was resolved through consensus was where the organ retrieval should be done. Once the brain death declaration was made, the patient should be shifted to a registered transplant centre or a medical college hospital, whichever was nearest. It was decided not to shift all patients to Chennai to the extent possible so as not to disturb the patient and his/her family.

More hospitals have been invited to register themselves as transplant centres, provided they have the required infrastructure.

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