Take my kidney programme launched

Take my kidney programme launched
THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2010 00:00
By Sandun A. Jayasekera

The Health Ministry has launched a ‘National Organ Donor Programme’ (NODP) with special emphasis on kidney donations.

NODP with special emphasis on kidney donations from living and non related and cadaveric transplant is initiated by health minister Maithripala Sirisena. Kidneys for transplants have been obtained only from blood relatives, brain dead patients and matching donors up to now.

The NODP which is being implemented in association with the Kidney Transplant Support Foundation and the National Kidney Foundation of Sri Lanka would facilitate donation of kidneys from living during their life time, dead or brain dead and non-related donors to needy patients whose only hope for living is kidney transplantation, a health ministry spokesman said.

Director General Health Services Dr.Ajith Mendis on the instructions of Minister Sirisena has sent a circular to directors of leading hospitals to make necessary arrangements for the success of the NODP, spokesman W.M.D.Wanninayaka said. The circular has instructed hospital directors to maintain a separate Database which will contain the details of all registered Donors as well as recipients. Access to the Database will only be provided to Directors of Hospitals, Consultants and authorized staff nominated by them ensuring strict confidentially, he said. Initially 20 hospitals across the county have been provided with computers and other logistics enabling potential donors to register themselves. These hospitals are with ICU units making it possible to identify patients with potential cadaveric transplant possibilities, Mr. Wanninayaka said.

The programme would make it possible for patients in the state sector to obtain a kidney from the database of such registered donors and the “primary matching” of Donor / Recipient being carried out by the computerized database with the final selection made by the Consultants according to established and accepted criteria. According to the guidelines set out by DG, Dr. Mendis for hospital directors in this exercise, every patient requiring a kidney transplant should be registered under the NODP in the Database by the respective physicians treating the patient. The NODP will also register any altruistic donor who is prepared and agrees to donate a kidney free, while alive or his entire body or selected organs after his death. To ensure transparency, every hospital with ICU should inform the hospital administration and activate the Database of dying patients via the “activating donor” function, so that all users of the system including the Surgeons are made aware of the availability of kidneys and other organs of a brain dead patient. All such “harvested” organs should be assigned to patients under the matching donor function which will ensure that the most suitable patient receives the organ. There are about 30,000 kidney patients with acute kidney failure in the country who needs costly regular dialysis for their survival and 17,000 out of them are in hospitals waiting for a transplant. He said that about 9 donors have already been registered at the Database for donation of their kidneys while they are alive and 1,000 after their death.

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