Andhra Pradesh, which is doing well in organ transplantation, could get a State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) centre of its own. The Central government will give a grant of Rs. 60 lakh for developing it, said National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) director Vimal Bhandari.
Dr. Bhandari who came to participate in an Organ Transplant Coordinators train programme organised by Ramesh Hospitals here told The Hindu that Andhra Pradesh was being currently taken care by the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) centre at the Government Medical College, Chennai.
The ROTTO in Chennai was the centre for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Andhra Pradesh.
Dr. Bhandari said though there were 30 States and Union Territories, there were only six SOTTOs attached to the different AIIMS located at Bhopal, Raipur, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur and Rishikesh. The six SOTTOs were functioning under the jurisdiction of five ROTTOs that were covering the country, he explained. He said the NOTTO was an apex networking organisation created with the primary aim of building a national network of hospitals with the capability of “retrieving” organs and also developing a national registry of organ transplantation on par with that of the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
“Unless the requirement of different vital organs is known at the national- level it is not possible for NOTTO to make plans,” Dr Bhandari said.
NOTTO was trying to train Organ Transplant Coordinators who were crucial in making the organ transplantation programmes a success.
“Transplant coordinators are like commandos, they are well trained and highly motivated. Every hospital should have at least two transplant coordinators. They should be able to counsel the relatives and liaison between the relatives, hospital staff, surgeons and the networking agencies. Proper training and motivation was necessary for them,” Dr Bhandari said.
NOTTO was also trying to train surgeons. Currently 301 hospitals with organ transplantation capabilities had been registered with NOTTO and 150 of them from 13 districts were regularly updating data regarding waiting lists and organ transplantations, he said.
NOTTO had submitted a proposal for giving incentives to the government hospital staff and doctors for identifying cases for organ harvesting. It was still pending approval, Dr Bhandri said.
