Telangana, Maharashtra top in donor organ transplants

Union Minister for State of Health and Family Welfare Bharathi Pravin Pawar said the government was taking up several steps to increase awareness on organ donation

Hyderabad: The Central government on Friday said Telangana and Maharashtra were the best-performing States in the country in terms of number of Deceased Donor Organ Transplantations in 2021 and 2022, respectively. This was disclosed by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharathi Pravin Pawar in Lok Sabha on Friday. In reply to a question by Vellore MP DM Kathir Anand, the union Minister said Tamil Nadu was one of the active States in taking up the programme.

On the steps taken by the Centre to facilitate the cadaver and live organ transplants for deserving patients in the country, he said the government was taking up several steps to increase awareness on organ donation. Dissemination of information by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO) and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), a website www.notto.gov.in; a 24×7 call centre with a toll-free helpline number (1800114770) to provide information, tele-counseling and to help in coordination for organ donation, were among the many steps being taken, he said.

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On its part, the Telangana government, to strengthen infrastructure for conducting organ transplants, released Rs 35 crore to construct a state-of-the-art multi-organ transplantation centre at Gandhi Hospital in the city. “The high-end facility will be ready in six months. The NIMS hospital is already conducting transplants but there is a need to take it up more aggressively,” Health Minister T Harish Rao said on National Organ Donation Day in November last.

Further, the State government, towards pushing for more organ transplant surgeries in government hospitals, is also using choppers to transport donated organs of brain-dead patients from district hospitals to teaching hospitals in Hyderabad.