State Conveners’ Meeting on Promoting Deceased Organ Donation and Transplantation Program in India

Updated on Monday, July 7, 2014

The State Conveners’ meeting on “Promoting Deceased Organ Donation & Transplantation Program in India” was held on 28^th June 2014 at Hotel, Trident, Chennai. The conveners and key personnel of States namely Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra where the deceased donation and transplantation program is well established and the States - West Bengal, Odisha and Goa which are trying to set up deceased donation program participated in the meeting. The meeting also received participation of NGOs namely MOHAN Foundation and NNOS.

The deceased donation program, organ distribution criteria, transplant outcomes, challenges and measures taken by each State was presented by the State representatives. The personnel from West Bengal, Odisha and Goa spoke about various steps being taken to establish the deceased donation Programme in their respective States.

After that the group had a discussion on “Sharing organs between States”. It was unanimously accepted that the organs should not be wasted as they can save lives and are very precious. The members generally agreed that a guideline should be designed to spell out the protocol to share the organs with the neighbouring States when not utilised by the donor State.

Followed by that, the group had discussion on

THO (amended) Act, 2011 & Rules, 2014 – The group had a vibrant discussion on the amended act and the rules. Few amendments were addressed in the Act & Rules found as stumbling blocks in implementing the deceased donation program.
The role of administrators
Transplant coordinators - qualification, training, burnouts & attrition

At the end, Mr. P.W.C. Davidar, Principal Secretary, Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department, Government of Tamil Nadu spoke on “Creating an Independent registered body in each State for Deceased Donation and Transplantation Program - Structure and functionality”. He also shared his recent visit to The Gift of Life Donor Program, Philadelphia, USA – regional centre that coordinates life-saving and life-enhancing transplants.

Key outcomes:

Inform NOTO of the first meeting of the stakeholder and progress made on organ sharing, registry and functionality of the all the organ sharing networks of the states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Maharastra
The readily available data could be shared with national registry to be sent to NOTO
Having mutually acceptable guidelines on “Sharing organs between States and the sharing criteria of the states to be spelled out and sent to NOTO
Donor Pledge Registry – further clarity required from NOTO
Medico-legal cases handling by each state needs further discussion as each state seem to be following a different methodology
Sending a letter signed by all Conveners to the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Government of India to make certain changes to some clauses in the amended Act and Rules
Initiating an independent registered body in each State for Deceased Donation and Transplantation Program
West Bengal, Odhisha and Goa are keen to start the deceased donor transppantation programme on lines of other states

Members participated:

State	Members participated
Tamil Nadu	Dr. Amalorpavanathan, Convener, Cadaver Transplant Program (CTP) Dr. Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation Mr. C. E. Karunakaran, Trustee, National Network for Organ sharing Dr. Bruno Mascarenhas, Technical Associate, CTP
Kerala	Dr. Ramdas Pisharody, Convener, Mrithasanjeevani Dr. Noble Gracious - Nodal Officer, Mrithasanjeevani
Andhra Pradesh	Dr. Swarnalatha, Medical Officer, In-charge – Jeevandan Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, Country Director, MOHAN Foundation
Karnataka	Dr. D.Ramesh, Secretary, Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK)
Maharashtra	Dr. G.B. Daver, President, Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC), Mumbai
West Bengal	Dr. Rajan Pandey, Prof. and HOD, Department of Nephrology, IPGMER
Odhisa	Dr. Chittaranjan Kar, Prof. Nephrology, SCB Medical College
Goa	Dr. Amol Mahaldar, Consultant Nephrologist, Goa, Medical College