Lack of well trained neuro surgeons and low awareness levels at government and private hospitals has hit the Jeevandan programme both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states.
According to cadaver transplant experts, the government and policy makers should bring in drastic changes in the law and should initiate mass awareness programmes among the common people about organ donation and its importance at both government and private hospitals.
Moreover, the government should also appoint trained neuro surgeons and sensitise the hospital staff in early diagnosis of brain dead people. The hospital staff along with certain NGOs should also play a vital role in creating a wider awareness among family members of the donors about importance of organ donation and should remove unwanted apprehensions, superstitious believes and wrong notions about organ donation.
“It is high time that Jeevandan programme should go deeper into the society. There is still a very big gap in terms of awareness. We need to organise more awareness camps in the rural and urban areas. People also must be dedicated to donate organs. There are about 400 donors who have registered and expressed consent for donating organs, but when it comes to actual donation, their family members raise objections. Therefore a complete consensus of consent is required. For this, we need to reach out to larger numbers of people and spread knowledge and sensitise people,” said Anuradha, a senior officer overlooking Jeevandaan programme in Telangana.
Not just creating awareness among general people, hospitals and diseased family members, the government should also take initiatives to reach out to different set-ups in private sector and also colleges. Moreover, the government should also initiate steps to enhance the skills of neurologists, so that they gain the ability to diagnose brain death and also create a pool of transplant surgeons in the government hospitals of both TS and AP.
Currently the pool of transplant surgeons is in private sector, the government hospitals have very less and unskilled neurosurgeons that are not so well trained. In fact the expertise does not exist in the teaching hospitals of both the states. “Specific equipments as well as skills are required to declare a patient brain dead. There are three compulsory tests that must be carried out. Equipment and skills are both lacking,” opined a senior doctor in Osmania General Hospital.
At present there are 1,031 patients registered in the kidney and liver waiting lists. The number of patients waiting for a kidney is 680, while more than 400 patients are in need of a liver transplant in both AP and Telangana states.