New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) To meet the increasing demand of organ transplantation, public-private partnership between hospitals in the country is the way forward, Director General of Health Services R.K. Srivastava said here Tuesday.
‘There is tremendous planning and meticulous research required before any transplant takes place. To meet the dearth of donors in the country, it is very important to have a strong public-private partnership among hospitals,’ Srivastava said at a press conference held to announce a heart transplant on a 44-year-old woman.
‘The National Organ Transplant Programme, which started as a pilot project in Delhi, aims at creating a donor registry, conducting audits of hospitals, connecting registered hospitals and their ICUs for organ donations and connecting patients in the waiting list for receiving organs,’ he added.
According to preliminary figures given by the government before the first Organ Donation Day observed Nov 18 last year, India has an annual demand of about 175,000 kidneys, 50,000 hearts and 50,000 livers for transplant each year.
Hospitals such as Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, have been roped in for the venture between the government and private healthcare providers.
