Government to spread awareness on organ donation before camp

With Organ Donation Day being celebrated today, the state government has issued a resolution, asking the medical education department to hold a three-day organ donation camp from August 30. Ahead of the camp, the government will also undertake an unprecedented campaign to spread awareness about organ donation, involving various departments such as public health, higher and technical education, revenue, home, food and drug administration and information and public relations.

As part of its initiative, the government will also pay for the treatment at private hospitals of poor patients who require organs.

According to Dr. Gauri Rathod, assistant director of health services, “We want to increase cadaver donations on a larger scale, so that people can legally get vital organs without any hassle. At the same time there is a special facility for the poor who want to get their kidney transplant done in a major private hospital. They can get free treatment and the bill amount of (up to) Rs 4.5 lakh would be paid by the government to the hospitals.”

According to the data collected by the medical education and public health departments, more than 12,000 patients are waiting for transplant procedures.

Many patients who are ailing from serious ailments have to wait for main organ transplants such as liver, kidney, heart, lungs and eyes.

Keeping their demands in mind, the government issued a GR for promoting cadaver donations, which states that the medical education department will hold a massive three-day organ donation campaign.

This will cover the entire state and celebrities will be roped in to spread awareness about organ donation.

The GR says, “At the state level, a high-level coordination committee headed by the additional chief secretary, medical education, will coordinate the campaign. The public health secretary, the director general of police, the Mumbai University vice-chancellor and directors of medical education, public health, ESIs and Ayush will be members of the coordination committee.”