The Andhra Pradesh government’s Cadaver Transplantation Program (CTP) will be implemented on the lines of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a Virginia-based agency.
Efforts are on to locate the Jeevandan Centre (name is likely to be changed for AP) at NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) here and to establish of a tissue-typing laboratory. Both agencies will be in the public sector.
The facility is currently not available in the public sector, and even the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, where the Telangana State’s Jeevandan Centre is based, is no exception.
Organ samplingNearly 80 per cent of organ samples are referred to Apollo Hospitals, while the rest are tested in other private hospitals. The organs meant for transplant should match the patients’ requirements.
NTRUHS Vice-Chancellor T. Ravi Raju, who returned to the city after a two-week official trip to the US, told The Hindu that steps were being taken to popularise organ transplantat in AP where a miniscule number of complicated surgeries are performed owing to lack of awareness and apprehensions.
Patients requiring donor organs at present depend on the Jeevandan Centre in Hyderabad. Once AP’s organ donation programme becomes operational, there will be facilities for kidney, liver and heart transplants.
Dr. Raju said allotment of organs would be made directly to the recipients instead of routing them through hospitals. The time taken under this arrangement is bound to be minimal.
Besides, it will be made mandatory for hospitals to appoint transplant coordinators and grief counsellors who play the pivotal role of motivating the kin of the deceased to donate organs of their dear ones for saving lives.
Some of the best practices of UNOS will be adopted for making AP’s cadaver transplantation programme successful, Dr. Raju said, adding that formal orders from the government for setting up the facilities were awaited, and that they were likely to be issued any time.
