Almost a decade after the State government made it mandatory for organ transplant centres to display the cost range for transplant surgeries on their website, a majority of such authorised centres have yet to adhere to the Government Order issued to this effect in 2008.
In the G.O. dated September 5, 2008, the Health Department had laid down the responsibilities of transplant centres in hospitals “to ensure that transparency, accountability, patient well-being and quality care are adequately taken care of.” One of the key instructions contained in the order was to put up the approximate range of cost for a transplant surgery online.
The G.O. stated that all hospitals with transplant centres that wished to benefit from the cadaver transplant programme were required to display the approximate range of cost of a transplant surgery. The centres should specify the cost of each organ on the websites of the respective hospitals as well as on the web portal designated for the purpose by the Health Department.
However, a perusal of the websites of several hospitals showed that such details were still unavailable.
Move for transparency
A senior doctor said the idea of making hospitals display the approximate cost of transplants was an effort to make the transplant programme transparent when it was conceived.
“This was insisted upon a number of times, but was not enforced strictly. The hospitals were repeatedly advised to fall in line with the Government Order and put up the approximate range of cost for each organ [online],” he said.
Some hospitals have provided elaborate details of their in-house organ transplant programmes on their website. Though they have displayed the procedures organ-wise, the cost factor has been left out.
Sunil Shroff, managing trustee, MOHAN Foundation, a NGO that promotes organ donation, said the transplant centres should provide the approximate cost range for transplants for the benefit of patients.
“It is a good thing as patients would know how much they should pay for a transplant surgery. The hospitals should mention how much a patient will have to spend for a straightforward procedure, say for instance, for seven days, and for a particular type of ward. They should inform that the costs could get escalated in case of complications, as we cannot predict anything in transplant surgeries,” he said.
An official of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan) said the organisation would look into the issue, but declined to comment further.
