Lok Sabha Parliamentary Q & A on Organ Donation & Transplantation
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 288
ANSWERED ON 23.11.2012
LIVER TRANSPLANTATION
288. Shri RAMESH BAIS
RADHA MOHAN SINGH
HARI MANJHI
Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the number of liver patients is rising constantly in the country;
(b) if so, the present estimated number of liver patients in the country;
(c) whether liver transplant is being carried out illegally in the country;
(d) if so, the steps taken to check illegal liver transplant in the country;
(e) the number of patients waiting for liver transplantation along with the number of patients out of these undergoing liver transplantation each year in the country; and
(f) the steps taken by the Government to provide advanced treatment and strengthen transplantation facilities to liver patients in the country?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI GHULAM NABI AZAD)
(a) & (b) Health being a State subject, such information is not maintained centrally.
(c) No such incidents have come to the notice.
(d) The penal provisions and punishments have been made more stringent in the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act, 2011.
(e) Such data is not maintained centrally. However, the estimates based on published studies indicate that there is a wide gap between the demand and the availability of livers. There is an estimated requirement of more than fifty thousand livers, while only about three hundred livers are reportedly transplanted every year.
(f) The State Governments authorize hospitals for transplantation of human organs as per law and procedures laid down under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 and the Rules made thereunder. Since the subject of liver transplantation is covered as a speciality under the medical curriculam of the medical education institutions in the country, there is no specific proposal to train and update doctors on this subject.
