Govt to urge pvt hospitals to take proactive steps

Kolkata: The state Health department will urge the private hospitals to be more proactive in spreading awareness about organ transplantation of brain dead patients.

The senior officials of the Health department have come to know that the cases of brain dead patients' organ transplantations in private hospitals are not up to mark despite state government's initiatives because of the apathy of a section of the authorities in the private organisations.

In many cases, it has been found that private hospitals do not co-operate with the family members of brain dead patients who are interested in donating the organs. It has also been alleged that some of the private hospitals tell the interested family members that they do not have proper information about the procedure of organ donation.

In a recent incident, a 37-year-old man from Bishnupur in South 24 Parganas was admitted to a premier private hospital in Alipore on October 8 with fever and short-term memory loss. On October 10, MRI and CT scan were performed on the patient and he was reportedly declared brain dead. The doctors said that TB meningitis led to the brain death of the patient.

The family members told the hospital authorities that they wanted to donate the organs of the patient. But the hospital authorities allegedly told the family members that they do not have the service of organ transplantation of brain dead patients. The family members were also urged by the private hospital to contact Swasthya Bhawan. The family members thus contacted the Swasthya Bhawan and managed to donate the corneas.

The state Health department formed a brain death declaration committee in all the medical college and hospitals and also in the private hospitals. An observer was selected in the districts to monitor the activities of the Brain Death Declaration Committee and verify the documents relating to the case. The brain death committee had been formed comprising the principal of a medical college or medical superintendent of the institution, attending physician or a surgeon and two other senior medical officers — a neurologist and an anesthesiologist.

An observer will also supervise the entire procedure and examine the brain death cases and certify the same. The state government made it mandatory for all hospitals to form such committees which will ascertain and certify brain death cases.

A senior Health department official said that they would ask the private hospital authorities to follow the proper norms laid down by the state government and urge them to play a constructive role in this regard.

It may be here mentioned that Bengal government has brought about a deal of improvement in the infrastructure for the procurement and transplantation of different organs from dead bodies in the state-operated hospitals. At the same time, a set of rules is being encoded for keeping an eye on such transplantations in private hospitals as well.

It was learnt that private hospitals are not coming forward to spread awareness about organ donation of the brain dead patients. Hence, the state government has decided to appeal the private hospitals to be more proactive in this regard.

A person is considered brain dead when he or she no longer has any neurological activity in the brain or brain stem — which essentially means no electrical impulses are being transferred between the brain cells. Doctors perform a number of tests to determine whether someone is brain dead.