Kolkata: Renal transplants may soon be started at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).
The CMCH authorities have recently submitted an application to the state Health department,
seeking permission to conduct renal transplantation at the hospital. If everything goes as per plan, the CMCH authorities may get licence to carry out kidney transplants early next year.
The department will now examine if the CMCH has adequate infrastructure to conduct such operations. Permission will be given to the CMCH after going through a checklist of necessary parameters required for the issuance of such licence, said an official of the department.
According to a senior official of CMCH, the necessary infrastructure to perform renal transplantation has already been put in place and the hospital has just been waiting for clearance from the Health department.
Renal transplantation would be started in full swing once the department gives its clearance. A seminar was recently conducted at the hospital in this regard.
It may be mentioned here that CMCH is the first government-run hospital in the state that has successfully conducted two heart transplants within a span of three months.
Among other government institutions, CMCH was the first and only hospital to obtain licence to carry out heart transplants.
Renal transplantations have been carried out in large numbers by SSKM Hospital, which was the first state-owned hospital to get licence for renal transplantation and CMCH will be the second hospital to start the same after SSKM. In case of heart transplants, however, CMCH has been the frontrunner.
It may be mentioned here that SSKM Hospital has also been working on building infrastructure to carry out heart transplants. A few months ago, a three-member team of doctors from the hospital had gone to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi to take part in a training programme on heart transplantation.
As a part of the initiative, a heart failure clinic was opened at the Cardiology department of the hospital recently. Necessary infrastructure is being put in place at the cardio thoracic vascular surgery (CTVS) department of the hospital, where the heart transplantation unit would be set up.
The state Health department has been contemplating how organ transplants can be performed in the other state-run medical colleges in the city as well. Bengal has already seen a significant improvement in organ transplantation in recent times.