The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) has been writing directly to hospitals in Tamil Nadu seeking live transplant data and details of transplant coordinators. While the State has written to NOTTO asking it to send emails only through the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan), experts view this as a sign of “growing interference” by the Central organisation into the State’s domain even though T.N. has not implemented the amended Transplantation of Human Organs Act and Rules.
It all started last year when NOTTO asked the State to register hospitals with it. In the weeks that followed, 73 out of the 89 hospitals registered with NOTTO. Next, NOTTO made it compulsory for hospitals performing heart and lung transplants to obtain a NOTTO ID if they wished to take organs from other States, and for their overseas patients, official sources said.
Till now, Transtan has been sharing monthly transplant data with NOTTO. Of late, NOTTO has been sending emails directly to hospitals — both government and private. A recent mail sought details of transplant coordinators (number of coordinators, names, mobile number, email ID and training status). “The organisation had also asked for live transplant data from each hospital. They should ask the Directorate of Medical Education or Directorate of Medical Services (DMS) for such details, and not write directly to hospitals,” the official source added.
‘Illegal act’
J. Amalorpavanathan, former member-secretary, Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu said, “This act of a Central organisation writing directly to individual hospitals bypassing the T.N. government is not just improper, it is illegal. Health is a State subject and the Centre should get all data only from the State government and not bypass it. The government must immediately take this issue up with the Centre and stop this serious interference into the State’s administrative domain.”
But this was not the first time that NOTTO was doing this. C.E. Karunakaran, trustee of NNOS Foundation, said the question is how the State-level agency has dealt with the issue. “A few years ago, NOTTO did a similar thing by writing directly to hospitals. When this was raised by hospitals, the Health Department wrote to NOTTO asking them not to contact hospitals directly. Why has the State agency complied with NOTTO?” he questioned. The department had written its objection to NOTTO on September 2, 2015.
Sunil Shroff, managing trustee of MOHAN Foundation, said it was absolutely essential to have national data but the request could be made to the DMS.
Health authorities said they have sent a mail to NOTTO asking it to route such emails only through the State authority.