New Delhi: “We must work towards improving the standard of organ transplantation so that donated organs are successively used to save lives. While doing this, we must balance speed, skill and scale effectively to achieve the desired outcomes in organ donation and transplantation.” This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare on the occasion of ‘7th Indian Organ Donation Day’, here today. Shri Nadda said that only 10,000 pledges were received till June 2016, which has now been increased significantly to more than 1 lakh pledges which is quite encouraging. We have set a target of 20 lakhs pledges by the end of 2017, the Health Minister stated.
Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, MoS (Health & Family Welfare),Smt. Anupriya Patel, MoS (Health & Family Welfare), Dr. C. Vijaya Baskar, Minister of Health, Government of Tamil Nadu, Shri C.K. Mishra, Secretary (Health & Family Welfare), and Dr. Jagdish Prasad, DGHS were present at the function. Shri Randeep Hooda, Hindi Movie Actor, who has pledged his organs and is a champion for organ donation and transplanting was also present at the occasion.
Shri J P Nadda further said that there is urgent need to strengthen the infrastructure and capacity of human resource for retrieval and transplantation of organs. He said that Government hospitals must come forward and ensure that both are done in the right way. “The hospitals should concentrate on ICU and Trauma Units for raising awareness and encouraging people for organ donation,” Shri Nadda said.
Shri J P Nadda suggested that linkages between retrieval of organs and transplantation have to be strengthened through mapping. “A coordinated effort is required amongst National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), Regional Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (SOTTO). He further said that NGOs are partners in this programme and should work beyond coordination.
Shri Nadda informed that Government has taken various steps to simplify organ donation law/rules and procedures such as Website of National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (www.notto.nic.in) provides updated information and online facility for registering pledges for organ donation. A 24×7 call centre with toll free helpline number (1800114770) has been established for providing information on organ donation and coordinating matters relating to retrieval and allocation of organs recovered from cadaver donors. National Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplant Registry (NOTTR) have been launched. NOTTO has launched National Registry for maintaining National Waiting list of patients who require organs/ tissue. The networking of transplant and/or retrieval hospitals has been started initially in Delhi and NCR. Five regional level organizations called Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) have been identified in the States of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal and UT of Chandigarh for networking and coordinating procurement and distribution of organs. Operational Guidelines for National Organ transplant Programme has been released. Policy and criteria for organ allocation in case of Kidney, Liver, Heart & Lung and Cornea have been approved. Standard Operating Procedures for various vital organs has been approved and uploaded on NOTTO website.
Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, MoS (Health) appealed to the people to come forward for organ donation without any fear. In his address, Shri Kulaste said that many myths and misconceptions surround organ donation. Sometimes even religions are referred to as forbidding organ donation and transplantation, which actually is contrary to the fact. He further stated very often, organ donation gets discouraged on the basis of superstitions. He said, “I salute all those who have shown courage to donate organ of their near and dear ones, and shown us a direction to emulate this brave act.”
Smt. Anupriya Patel, MoS (Health), stated that the uniqueness about donating organs after death is that you can give the gift of life to the people who need it the most and you can do so irrespective of the fact whether you are rich or poor. Smt Anupriya Patel added that irrespective of one’s social status, the gift would always be meaningful, and one would be able to live beyond one’s life. “I call upon my fellow country-men, therefore, enrich the entire life and society by pledging to utilise all organs and tissues for the good and maximum gain of humanity in this world,” Smt. Anupriya Patel elaborated.
Shri Randeep Hooda, Hindi Movie Actor congratulated families of organ donors and stated that there is need to encourage organ donation.
Shri J P Nadda also felicitated the States and individuals for their outstanding contribution towards organ donation. Amongst the states Tamil Nadu got the best cadaver transplant performing state while Maharashtra received the award for best performance in the field of Organ Donation. Madhya Pradesh got the best Emerging State award while Rajasthan received the award for another Emerging State. Among the hospitals, best hospital award was bagged by Ruby Hall Clinic from Pune and PGI Chandigarh and Apollo Hospital, Tamil Nadu bagged second and third price respectively. Among the Emerging Hospitals, Choithram Hospital & Research Centre, Madhya Pradesh received the first price while S. M S Hospital, Rajasthan got the price for second emerging hospital. Among the individuals S. Senthil Kumar received the award for Best Transplant Coordinator while second and third price in this category went to Surekha Joshi from Maharashtra and Rajinder Kaur from Chandigarh respectively. Special Mention to Ms. Sukhwinder Lal, Fortis Hospital, Gurugram and Mr. Mukesh Kumar, AIIMS, Delhi. At the function Shri Nadda also felicitated the transplant recipients. Among them were Ms. Reena Raju, Heart recipient/Founder, Light A Life. The lady with an Angel’s heart. She suffered from end stage heart failure at the age of 25 and had a successful heart transplant in the year 2009, Mr. Amarnath Tanwar, Kidney Recipient, paralympic winner, Kaithal, Haryana. He participated in the 15th transplant games of Australia held in western Sydney from 24th of September to 2nd of October. He earned two silver medals in badminton. Shri J P Nadda also felicitated the families of organ donors and thanked them for their exemplary gesture.
Also present on this occasion were Shri K B Aggarwal, AS (Health), and Dr. Vimal Bhandari, Director, NOTTO, representatives of NGOs and development partners and other senior officers of the Health Ministry.
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