District hospitals to function as organ retrieval centres

The Department of Health and Family Welfare now proposes to upgrade 30 district hospitals across the state to function as organ retrieval centres.

This is one of the primary measures in the pipeline to boost cadaveric organ donation in the state. Besides additional infrastructure, the staff of these hospitals would be trained in organ retrieval.

In the previous budget, Rs 2.07 crore was allocated for the establishment of the Jeevasarthakathe scheme and formation of a society.

Principal secretary, department of health and family welfare, Shalini Rajaneesh, said, “Surgeons in these district hospitals would be trained for organ retrieval. Infrastructure is available in some hospitals and would be upgraded where it is required for organ storage.”

The government would soon add 19 ventilators at district hospitals across the state.
“Trauma centres see a good number of brain death cases. Someone has to motivate donors’ families for cadaveric donation. We will appoint transplant co-ordinators in these district hospitals to do the counselling. The co-ordinator would work with the society which co-ordinates the cadaveric donation programme,” she added.

Co-ordinators would keep tabs on the brain stem death notification. Following the first notification of brain death, details of potential donors would be given to the society.

At present, 53 hospitals across the state have the licence to perform organ transplantation. All these have also been linked to the air ambulance service through an MoU to ease the organ transplant procedure, according to Rajaneesh. In a phased manner, the upgrading would be extended to taluk hospitals located on highways so that possible donors can be identified.

The Jeevasarthakathe Society would now replace the Zonal Co-ordination Committee for Organ Transplantation. The chief minister will be the chairman of the society that was established on February 21.

According to a senior health department official, those names figuring in the ZCCK list would be given first preference. Organ donation would happen in four zones – Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi and Belagavi. The department will also take a re-look at the allotment policy for organs on the lines of the practice adopted in Tamil Nadu.