Cadaveric organ donation in the State is set to get a boost with the government gearing up to establish a State Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (SOTTO).
This follows a directive from the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (NOTTO), the Union Health Ministry’s latest initiative under which organs and tissues will be collected scientifically from donors and distributed to patients at minimum cost.
In the run up to the setting up of SOTTO, Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK) organised a workshop ‘Deceased Donor Transplant Programme: Learning and Moving Forward’, in the city on Friday.
At the meeting, representatives from zonal transplantation committees of Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu pointed out several loopholes in the NOTTO guidelines issued by the Centre. They felt that there was no need for having a common waitlist at the Centre. “The States should be allowed to have their own waitlist. A common registry from States and regions should be compiled and published for research,” a participant said.
“There cannot be a common distribution and allocation criteria for cadaver organs in all States. Instead, there is a need to streamline and have common donor maintenance protocols after a brain death is declared,” another participant said.
J. Amalorpavanathan, member secretary of Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, who made a presentation on the evolution of the authority in Tamil Nadu, said the need of the hour for States was to aim for a higher number of donations.
