Organ transplants to become a smoother process

Kolkata: To make the process of transplanting organs smoother in government hospitals, the state health department is mulling over the possibilities of preparing a comprehensive data on the patients who are in urgent need of organ transplantation.

The proposed method may be introduced in all the medical colleges and hospitals in the city. According to the plan, it may be started at the only government-run super-specialty hospital, SSKM, in a pilot basis. The model may be later adopted by other medical colleges in the districts as well.

Once the state health department has a comprehensive data of patients, it will make the entire procedure of organ transplantation more effective and the success rate of cadaver transplantation is expected to go up, believe health department officials.

The medical college authorities will be asked to prepare comprehensive data on the patients requiring organ transplantations. After a hospital prepares the data, it will have all the information of the patients who would be requiring organ transplantation with the click of a mouse. The hospital authorities may engage an organisation to carry out survey on the patients.

It has been found over time that the success rate in case of cadaver transplantation is slightly lower than the cases where the recipients are directly getting the organs from the living donors. As there is no comprehensive data in the hospitals, it often takes a long time for the hospitals to complete the formalities.

Due to the delay in the procedure, the patients often die even after the transplantation is performed. Various tests are performed, including blood tests of the receivers who are requiring transplantation.

Once the data is prepared, the health department would have a clear picture as to how many patients undergoing treatment at various medical colleges and hospitals in the state, would be requiring organ transplantation.

The family members of the patients are often caught in legal formalities which take a long time. After a patient is declared brain-dead by the competent authorities, his or her organs are extracted after obtaining permission from the family members. Then the organs are taken to other hospitals according to the requirements of patients.

If the hospitals or the health department have detailed information of the patients requiring transplantation, the whole process would become faster.