Committee favours cancellation of kidney transplant licences of two hospitals

The committee formed to inquire into the illegal kidney sale racket, involving the Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital in Perambalur and Cethar Hospital in Tiruchi, has recommended that the kidney transplant licences of these hospitals be cancelled and action initiated against brokers Anandan and Stanley Mohan under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhitha.

A detailed report submitted to the authorisation committee by S. Vineeth, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, said the inquiry found that the documents submitted to the committee were prepared to facilitate illegal kidney transplant with the consent of the hospitals. Some of the documents were fraudulently prepared by the transplant coordinator to facilitate illegal kidney transplant, said a release from the Health Department.

Action must also be initiated against the staff and officials of district-level committees that submitted fake documents to the authorisation committee under the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DME&R), which is responsible for approving living donor organ transplants, the panel said.

‘Reconstitute panels’

The committee suggested reconstitution of district-level and State-level organ transplantation authorisation committees. It also suggested that the DME develop a Standard Operation Procedure for transplants involving live donors. The effects of organ donation must be explained to the live donors. In future, if organ recipients are unable to be present before the district-level committee, they should be interviewed online. Since documents pertaining to organ transplants are considered medico-legal, they should be kept for 10 years. The forms may be printed in Tamil and English.

If applications for transplants are submitted from a particular village or taluk repeatedly, such applications should be given special attention and decisions taken accordingly. The Collectors should be apprised of such instances. More awareness must be created by the Collectors of live donor organ donation. Hospitals and doctors, too, should be educated regularly, the committee said.