Army to interlink hospitals for organ transplant

Vijay Mohan/TNS
Chandigarh, July 1
In order to expand the scope of organ transplant and enable more patients to benefit from such procedures, all major military hospitals are being interlinked with the Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority. This would enable other hospitals to harvest organs from donors instead of just a handful of centres that have the facility to perform the transplants.

The Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority co-ordinates organ donation in the military. Interlinking hospitals is among several new measures being initiated by the Armed Forces Medical Services to give an impetus to transplant procedures within the services.

While there is a large number of Army, Navy and Air Force hospitals spread across India, there are just five military centres for kidney transplants and one for liver and heart, which cater to the requirement of Armed Forces personnel and their dependents. Patients from across the country who require transplants are referred to these centres.

At present, barring a couple of exceptions, organs for transplant are harvested from donors admitted to the five transplant centres, which may result in non-availability of transplantable organs at times and leading to a long waiting list and a lengthy waiting period.

Army sources said the scope of organ transplant within the services was considerable, given the large number of military personnel, their dependents as well as greatly increased exposure of troops to adverse climatic and operational conditions.

The Army recently introduced liver transplant surgery and now plans to go in for lung, intestinal and pancreatic transplants, which would require a large donor base.
Army to interlink hospitals for organ transplant