JP Nadda Inaugurates National Organ Donation Registry

Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Friday (27 November) said that the health ministry has decided to impart training in organ and tissue transplantation at all government hospitals even as he acknowledged a "delay" in promoting organ donation by the government.

Speaking after launching the 'National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Registry' at the 6th Indian Organ Donation Day at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, the Minister said that the government will monitor the number of organ donations in the hospitals in each state through the registry.

"Let organ donation became a national movement and show to the world that even in death, we care for our fellow citizens and the humanity at large," he added.

The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Registry will have two components; one is for organ and other is for the tissues.

These two components are for the professional and administrative bodies, which can be accessed by networking organizations. Other components are for public information. It has information about the various hospitals who are doing transplantation people who have pledged for organ donation, the patients of organ failure waiting for transplants, living donor who are donated the organs, information on the follow up of living donor and transplant recipients.

The minister said it is necessary to involve society, NGOs, voluntary organization, religious leaders in this movement to encourage people to donate their organs.

He said that the current organ donation and transplantation system is nowhere close to the requirements for organs in the country.

Against a requirement of 1 to 2 lakh kidneys, only about 5000 transplantations are being done annually. Similarly against a requirement of 30000 Liver transplantation requirements, we are currently doing about 1000 only, he added.

He said that at present all transplant facilities are available in metros and 95 per cent are in private sector.

The government is implementing National Organ Transplant Programme to promote organ donation from deceased persons and thereby increase the availability of organs for transplantation.

The networking has been started through this registry in Delhi and NCR Hospitals. This will be soon being extended to the rest of the country.