Maharashtra panel to finalise SOP on transplants

The state government on Monday issued government resolution (GR) instituting a 16-member committee headed by health minister Deepak Sawant to finalise standard operating procedure (SOP) on organ transplants so as to rule out foul play.

At a meeting chaired by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, a set of verification measures was mooted including verification of documents provided by donors and recipients by magistrates instead of notaries; creation of online data in standard format on donors and recipients accessible to concerned agencies; and reliance on Aadhar identity cards to authenticate relationship between donors and recipients; said government department sources. One of the sources told The Asian Age that the SOP is to be drawn up under the provision of the Human Organs Transplant Act, 1994.

The meeting set up the committee that will finalise SOP on organ transplants. “It was discussed that DMER and DHS should prepare a check list of all procedures that are required to be followed before conducting a human organ transplant. Police probe into the recent kidney transplant scam at Powai’s private Dr L.H. Hiranandani Hospital has showed that donors were made to act as relatives of patients. The procedure to verify whether donors were indeed relatives of the patients was found to be poor,” said the source.

The key points discussed in the meeting included need for mailing system with a standard format with details of donors and recipients that should be sent to DHS and DMER with suitable software; a special room – console – for spreading awareness on organ donation; and so on.

Mr Sawant said, “We are there to help doctors but we won’t spare any foul play on their part. Verification of documents is a key part of the process as per law.”