Professionals to beef up organ transplants

Thiruvananthapuram: In a major policy decision aimed at boosting organ transplantation in state, govt decided to hire professional services to streamline and strengthen the organ retrieval and transplantation process.The decision comes in view of the extensive and time-sensitive nature of deceased donor organ transplantation, which requires the involvement of specialists such as intensivists, transplant surgeons, anaesthetists, grief counsellors, ICU technicians, OT technicians and empanelled doctors for brain stem death certification, often at odd hours.Under the new policy, these professionals will be paid fees commensurate with the time, expertise and services rendered during organ retrieval and transplantation process. The move is expected to encourage more hospitals to function as organ retrieval centres.Dr Noble Gracious, executive director of Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (K-SOTTO), said the transplantation process involves a series of coordinated steps. They include brain stem death declaration, counselling of relatives, informing family members about the patient's condition, obtaining consent for withdrawal of ventilator support or organ donation, maintaining the body until retrieval, organ evaluation and allocation, arranging logistics and green corridors for transportation, organ retrieval and transplant surgery.He said the entire process typically required medical professionals and supporting staff to be engaged for 24 to 36 hours. Presently, many of these personnel are rendering their services without any compensation.Gracious added that K-SOTTO was planning to declare district hospitals as non-transplant organ retrieval centres, which would increase the need for empanelled professional services to manage the process efficiently.With the new decision, K-SOTTO will be authorised to pay professional charges to specialists and hire service providers from outside govt departments during deceased donor organ transplantation procedures.