Three months on, transplants for kidney patients still on hold

Three months on, transplants for kidney patients still on hold
By: Alifiya Khan Date: 2011-06-27

Pune, INDIA -- As hospitals still await government approval of committees authorised to scrutinise cases of kidney transplant, patients made to undergo dialysis sessions costing R5,000 despite having donors lined up for surgery

For the past three months, 27-year-old BPO employee Santosh has been undergoing painful dialysis sessions, even as his relative is willing to donate his kidney for a transplant. The Dhanori resident, who is suffering from a kidney failure, has been on the waiting list of a city hospital all this time. By the end of March, all hospitals across the city had stopped conducting transplants after a controversy over its authorisation broke out.

Long wait: BPO employee Santosh at his residence in Dhanuri awaits
authorisation for his kidney transplant

"All transplants are guided by the Human Organ Transplant Act, which was amended by the state government in July 2008 and some new provisions were introduced. However, these weren't communicated to the hospitals until April 2011. So, we had to do paperwork and re-constitute committees. The proposal by our hospital for a new committee has been sent to the state government, but approval is awaited," said Vaishali Phansadkar, transplant co-ordinator at Poona Hospital and Research Centre.

This committee also known as local authorisation committees of hospitals scrutinises the papers of transplant recipients and donors, conducts interviews and has the power to accept or reject applications, keeping in mind that donation is being done for non-commercial gains.

"Until the committee approval comes, they cannot conduct interviews or authorise transplants. And that's why we have stopped all transplants now," said Aarti Gokhale, transplant co-ordinator at Ruby Hall Clinic. Bomi Bhote, CEO of Ruby Hall clinic, said that while Indian patients are under the purview of this new notification and their transplants are on hold, foreign patients do not get covered under these norms and their kidney transplants are taking place.

"The transplants of unrelated donors and foreign nationals get approved by the Sassoon hospital," he said.
At Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital too, the situation is similar. "The approval is yet to come for the new committee; it's a work in progress. Until then we have stopped transplants though there are patients on waiting list," said Shilpa Barve, transplant co-ordinator.

A few lucky ones
The only patients who are lucky are those on the waiting list of Jehangir Hospital, which is the only hospital in city to have resumed transplants. "We didn't have a problem with the renewal of authorization, as it had just come in before the amendment. We just needed to get the committee approved and we followed up with the government pronto and got the permissions from them. We have resumed the transplants as we have got the requisite permissions but its unfortunate for patients on waiting list elsewhere and we hope it resumes soon," said Vrunda Pusadkar, transplant co-ordinator at Jehangir Hospital.

Rs 5,000 Minimum cost of dialysis per week
14 Number of weeks that have elapsed since transplants were stopped
Rs 70,000 The amount patients have shelled out for dialysis in the meantime

Waiting list
While hospitals like Ruby Hall Clinic and Jehangir perform three to four transplants every month, others like Poona Hospital, KEM and Deenanath Mangeshkar also conduct a couple of surgeries. The list of patients waiting for donors varies in each hospital from five to six patients in medium-sized to even 20 to 30 patients in larger hospitals.

The controversy
According to amendment in the Human Organ Transplant Act, the authorisation committee in every hospital, should have members from civil society as well as doctors. Each of the members should have the state's approval. The state also has to nominate people on local committees. As it has not appointed its nominees on the local authorisation committees yet, hospitals have stalled transplants.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/jun/270611-kidney-patients-hospitals-government-approval-Human-Organ-Transplant-Act.htm