The health department has set up a three-member committee to check if Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences has the facilities required to start kidney transplantation.
According to the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, state governments need to form a committee to provide approval or no-objection certificates to hospitals for starting an organ donation facility.
Three doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital - Ajit Bahadur Singh, head of department, surgery, Hemant Kumar, head of department, nephrology, and Ajay Kumar, head of department, urology - comprise the IGIMS panel.
N.R. Biswas, the health hub director, said the committee is scheduled to conduct its investigation on April 10.
The members would ascertain whether or not the hospital has the necessary infrastructure, manpower and equipment to start the kidney transplantation facility. If not, they would find out if the health hub has taken steps for it.
Biswas said the IGIMS had already initiated work on starting the kidney transplant unit, for which the government allocated the health hub Rs 1.72 crore last August. He said an agency would be selected to execute the civil work related to the unit.
"Tenders would be issued by Monday and the equipment would be purchased simultaneously. Dr D.K. Mitra, head of the transplant immunology and immunogenetics department, of AIIMS-Delhi recently visited our hospital and we had fruitful negotiations with him. It has been decided that initially, we would send samples of human leukocyte antigen and lymphocyte cross-matching - tests helping detect whether the donor's body would accept or reject the kidney - to AIIMS-Delhi. We would later start the tests at IGIMS. We have two kidney transplant surgeons from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, and two more from other noted hospitals. We have placed orders with an agency for supply of the blood component separator machine at our blood bank, an important equipment in kidney or any other organ transplant. It would, however, take at least three months to complete the process," said Biswas.
The IGIMS has already started a cornea transplant facility and cardiac catheterisation lab. "Organ transplant facility has started at our hospital with cornea transplant. We have also conducted angioplasty on more than 200 patients so far," director Biswas added.
Sunil Kumar Singh, a member of the body of governors - the decision-making body of IGIMS - said start of the kidney transplant facility would benefit people across Bihar who right now have to visit other states for transplants.
