Representative Pic
Nagpur: Just as Nagpur is in the news for first successful organ transplant case, a question has been raised in the Assembly regarding pathetically insufficient number of Non Transplant Organ Retrieval (NTORC) centres in the state.
Two kinds of hospitals are needed for successful Organ transplant. One – the hospital that has the facility and capability of carrying out the complex transplant operations and second – hospitals that can safely and quickly harvest organs such as heart, kidneys and liver from a brain dead patient and then transport it to the recipient for transplant operation.
Shiv Sena MLA from Mumbai Sunil Shinde demanded an increase in the number of NTORCs in the state. There is an estimate that there are almost 3000 patients in the queue waiting for kidneys in the state. Against this only a handful organs are available each year due to lack of hospitals where harvesting can be done.
Replying to this, Dr. Deepak Sawant Minister of Public Health and Family Welfare said that there are 123 Transplant centers in Maharashtra and 54 NTORCs. The figure of kidney patients requiring transplant given out by him was 2021.
All District Civil Surgeons have been asked to have audit done of govt. and private hospitals in their respective areas to ascertain how many are fit for organ harvesting and can be converted into NTORC and forward the information to the Health Department.
The Minister also informed that 226 hospitals have so far sent applications for NTORC of which 54 were granted permission.
The Nagpur Scenario
For a population of approximately 50 lakhs there are only 6 Organ Transplant and Cadaver NTORCs in Nagpur area; They are – Care, Wockhardt, Orange City and Sure Tech. There is also a private hospital Acharya Vinoba Bhawe Gramin Rugnalaya run by the Meghes where organ harvesting and kidney transplant can be done. The Govt. Super Specialty hospital can do live organ transplant only.
Further, only kidney transplants are done in Nagpur District.
In the transplant case yesterday, where the donor patient had been admitted in Sawangi, one kidney transplant was done at the same hospital, the other was sent to Care Nagpur and the liver was sent to Mumbai. Heart could not be used since Fortis refused it and Nagpur does not have the facility yet.
