5 years after proposal, SCB’s liver transplant unit fails to take off

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s first liver transplantation unit at SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH), Cuttack is yet to take off. This despite the fact that five years have passed since the announcement of the unit.The liver unit was envisaged in 2013, a year after the kidney transplant unit was made operational in the premier health facility. Though civil constructions have been completed and equipment installed, the procedures have not been started allegedly owing to administrative callousness.

Sources said a modern state-of-the-art facility with advanced OT, ICU, pre-operation and post-operation wards and counselling centres has been developed at a cost of `22 crore, which includes equipment worth around `8 crore. A team of doctors and support staff from surgical gastroenterology, hepatology, anaesthesia, radiology and pathology departments have been trained at Medanta Institute of Liver Transplant and Regenerative Sciences, New Delhi to run the unit.

Though Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) has been made nodal officer of the unit and roped in Dr Tom Cherian from Hyderabad-based Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences to take forward the initiative, there has been no tangible progress.

“No one knows why is the unit not functioning. The equipment  installed two years back are lying idle as no initiative has been taken by the authorities to start the liver transplantation procedures.  Repeated reminders to make it functional seems to have fallen in deaf ears,” said TN Panda, managing trustee of Multi Organ Transplantation and Human Education Research.

The organisation has been pressing hard for immediate functioning of the liver transplantation unit and facilitating cadaveric organ donation in the State. Once the unit starts operating, poor patients will be able to avail the facility at an affordable cost. Dr Cherian had visited the facility last month and held discussion with officials of the transplant unit to prepare action plan for conducting practical transplantation. He has agreed to extend his expertise in carrying out the procedure.

The liver unit would function under the Surgical Gastroenterology Department with a group of trained doctors from the core discipline as well as Medicine, Radiology, Pathology, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine departments. Head of the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and in-charge of the liver unit Dr Mihir Mohapatra said everything is ready but one Air Handling Unit (AHU) of the OT is yet to be installed for which the unit has not been made functional. “It may take at least three months to have the AHU unit installed,” he added.

Reasons for delay
The liver unit was envisaged in 2013, a year after the kidney transplant unit was made operational in the premier health facility
One Air Handling Unit of the OT is yet to be installed
It is likely to take at least three months to have AHU unit installed