Karnataka Plans Organ Transplant Centres in 22 Medical Colleges
Karnataka’s Medical Colleges to Become Organ Donation Hubs
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has announced plans to establish organ transplant and retrieval centres in all 22 medical college hospitals across the state. This expansion follows the recent allocation of Rs 1 crore to Victoria Hospital, affiliated with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, to set up an organ transplant and retrieval centre.
Medical Dialogues had previously reported that the Karnataka government has announced the establishment of South India’s first Government Organ Transplant and Retrieval Centre in Bengaluru, stated Minister for Medical Education, Skill Development and Livelihood, Sharan Prakash Patil.
Also Read: Govt Organ Transplant and Retrieval Centre to come up in Bengaluru
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, speaking at a recent event organized by the Rotary Club of Organ Donation, stated that although a policy is already in place regarding organ retrieval centres in medical education institutes, its implementation remains lacking.
According to the health department, Karnataka currently has 28 Non-Transplant Human Organ Retrieval Centres (NTHORC), including some under the Department of Medical Education. Despite this, organ donation remains limited. Only 36 transplants took place over a three-year span from 2022 to 2024
The demand for organ transplants continues to far exceed the number of donations, and significant stigma around organ donation persists. A health department official noted that many families remain unwilling to donate the organs of their deceased relatives.
Rao agreed that grief counsellors were needed in government hospitals to promote organ donations ethically. "We have to make the existing centres work as well and talk to families of brain-dead patients about this (organ donation) as an option to help other people. It requires guidance to families about the many lives organ donation can save,” reports TOI.
He mentioned that Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Rudrappa Patil believes there is a lack of infrastructure for the proper functioning of the system. According to him, with adequate support from the health department in terms of infrastructure and funding, effective implementation would be possible, and discussions on this are currently underway.
Also Read: NMC grants conditional renewal to 22 GMCs in Karnataka
Speaking to TOI, the minister said, a committee will also evaluate where these retrieval centres, in addition to transplant centres, are most needed in the state."Organ retrieval centres will be of great help when there are transplant centres nearby. And transplants do not take place in medical colleges but in super-speciality hospitals. We see this in Bengaluru. When we expand retrieval centres across the state, we need to look at also establishing transplant centres. We will evaluate it, and discussions are ongoing with the health department for both transplant and retrieval centres".
