97 per cent of Telangana's organ donation comes from corporate hospitals; experts seek Govt hospital push
Organ Donation
Hyderabad: Telangana has emerged as the country’s second-highest performing state in organ donation. However, experts have flagged a major imbalance in the programme, with nearly 97% of deceased organ donations coming from corporate hospitals. The state’s extensive network of government hospitals and medical colleges has so far made only a limited contribution to the programme.
Medical Dialogues had previously reported that to strengthen organ transplant services across Telangana, Health Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha convened a meeting with senior Health Department officials and issued key directives aimed at expanding and improving transplantation facilities in government hospitals across the State.
Also Read:Telangana to expand organ transplant services at Govt Hospitals
According to the news reports, ahead of World Organ Donation Day, health experts said the state’s performance was encouraging when measured against its population, but cautioned that deceased organ donation remains heavily concentrated in Hyderabad. They called for the programme to be expanded to districts and for government hospitals and medical colleges to play a more active role in identifying potential donors, organ retrieval and transplantation.
Experts said the state’s public healthcare system, which includes a large network of government hospitals and medical colleges, needs to play a greater role in identifying potential donors, facilitating organ retrieval and supporting transplantation.
Unlike Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, where deceased organ donation programmes have expanded across multiple cities and districts, Telangana continues to rely largely on a handful of hospitals in Hyderabad. Experts suggested that cities such as Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Nalgonda could be developed as additional organ-retrieval and transplant centres.
The demand for organs also continues to far outstrip availability. Nearly 8,000 patients in Telangana are awaiting organ transplants, with kidneys accounting for a significant proportion of the demand.
“Telangana ranking second in the country in organ donation is a matter of pride, but greater public awareness and more donors are still needed to bridge the gap between demand and availability,” said Dr CH Uma Maheshwara Rao, consultant urologist and renal transplant surgeon, KIMS Hospitals, Secunderabad, reports TNIE.
He said Hyderabad had established itself as a major transplant hub, but thousands of patients continued to wait for organs. He also stressed the need to address misconceptions surrounding organ donation, including concerns about disfigurement and funeral rites.
Telangana also has a relatively small pool of registered organ donors. The state has fewer than 25,000 organ donation pledges, compared with several lakh pledges recorded in Maharashtra, according to health experts.
Speaking to TNIE, Dr Sree Bhushan Raju, professor and head of nephrology at NIMS, said increasing the number of pledges alone would not be enough unless more hospitals were equipped to participate in deceased organ donation and transplantation. “My appeal is simple: more people should pledge their organs, and more state-run hospitals and medical colleges should actively participate in deceased organ donation and transplantation. This is essential to save the lives of thousands of patients waiting for organs,” Dr Raju said.
He called for a wider public awareness campaign involving students, universities, bureaucrats, politicians and celebrities. Greater awareness, he said, could help families understand organ donation before a tragedy occurs and make it easier for them to take an informed decision about donating a loved one’s organs.
Dr Rao said misconceptions surrounding organ donation also needed to be addressed. Concerns about disfigurement of the body and funeral rites continue to discourage some families from considering donation, he said.
Experts also stressed that any expansion of the organ donation programme must be accompanied by strict adherence to established allocation rules. Political or personal recommendations, they said, should not be used to seek preferential or early transplantation, with allocation decisions following the law and established medical protocols.
