Mumbai In its first step towards increasing organ donation in government hospitals, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has asked city’s leading public hospitals to send their annual death report, along with the number of organ donations that have taken place.
While five public hospitals in the city- the state-run JJ Hospital and civic-run BYL Nair Hospital-Mumbai Central, LTMG Sion Hospital, Dr RN Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle and KEM Hospital, Parel- have transplant programmes, the hospitals have been lagging behind in donations.
While the data is yet to be submitted to DMER, a source said that in the last three years, only two organ donations have taken place – one each in KEM Hospital and JJ Hospital, and that too in 2020.
Dr Deelip Mhaisekar, director, DMER said, “Our hospitals have organ transplant programmes. However, we are not seeing organ donation or organ retrievals in these hospitals. It is a matter of concern and that’s the reason why I have asked them to submit a report in the next three months, along with how many patients were declared brain dead and how many organs were fit for retrieval.”
“After the reports are submitted, we will convene a meeting and decide on a roadmap to boost the numbers. It will be replicated in the rest of Maharashtra,” Dr Mhaisekar said.
According to transplant experts, there is an urgent need to boost and encourage organ donation in such hospitals, as they see more accident cases.
In Mumbai, as per the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC), 3,325 patients are waiting for a cadaver kidney and 328 for cadaver liver. The wait list for small bowels is seven, pancreas is 12, heart 28 and lungs is nine. As many as six patients are waiting for both heart and lung transplants and five patients are waiting for a hand transplant.
While in 2019, Mumbai saw 76 organ donors, the city saw 30 donations in 2020. In 2021, the city saw 32 organ donors. Till date, in 2022, the city has seen 16 donations.
“The waiting period for end-stage liver-kidney-heart patients is more than three months. Private hospitals have been driving the organ transplant programme in the city. Public hospitals see more accident cases, so the chances of brain dead patients are more,” said a leading transplant surgeon from a south Mumbai hospital.
A senior official from ZTCC said that the major problem with the government hospitals is the absence of transplant coordinators, because of which identification of brain-dead patients and counselling patient’s relatives isn’t happening.
“Of the five government medical colleges, only BYL Nair Hospital has a transplant coordinator who was recently appointed. One of the major duties of a transplant coordinator is daily visits to ICUs and a tab on brain-dead patients. S/he coordinates between the doctors and relatives, and counsels the relatives for donating organs if the patient is brain dead,” he said.
Apart from the brain-dead patient’s organ donation, the DMER said it is also trying to promote skin and eye donations in government hospitals.
“It is only when you counsel the patient’s relatives, for possible donations, that they’ll become more aware. We aren’t seeing much skin donations and eye donations. A dead patient’s skin and eyes can be donated,” said Dr Mhaisekar.