Kidney Transplant Centre remains on papers

20/06/2019

Every year about 2000 kidney patients are referred from Super Speciality Hospital Jammu to either SKIMS Soura in Srinagar, PGI Chandigarh or AIIMS Delhi for kidney transplant as there is no such facility in Jammu. Only dialysis facility is available in SSH. Despite High Court directions and lapse of over four years the Kidney Transplant Centre is nowhere in sight at Government Super Speciality Hospital Jammu even though a sum of Rs 15 crore has already been sanctioned and Jammu and Kashmir Organ Transplant (Amendment) Act enacted by the Governor. Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Smile Social Youth Club through its president MatloobSaleemQureshi raising the issue of organ transplant, the Division Bench of J&K High Court had on May 21, 2014 directed the Government to establish organ transplant centres in two Medical Colleges of the State. Moreover, the previous Government in 2016 had announced to establish a Kidney Transplant Centre in SSH Jammu so that patients from Jammu and adjoining districts do not have to go outside the State for availing this facility. However, even after the lapse of a considerable period of time there is no progress to make this facility a reality in Jammu and in every aspect whether it is staff, infrastructure and procurement of requisite machinery and equipments, there seems to be no development till date.
In December last year, Jammu & Kashmir Transplantation of Human Organ (Amendment) Act was enacted by the Governor on the lines of the Central Act so as to pave the way for start of organ transplant facility in the State. However, vital provisions of the legislation have not received the due attention of the Health and Medical Education Department till date. Talking about requisite infrastructure and procurement of equipments and though Government has sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the project but only an amount of Rs 15 crore has been released for the purchase of equipments and raising infrastructure. While the procurement of equipment is in pre-bidding stage, only an ICU has been established in the name of infrastructure.
It is going to be a major road block in making the facility functional as the both the departments which deal with the kidney disease patients i.e. Urology and Nephrology lack doctors and other paramedical staff while there are only 2 consultants in Nephrology Department, Urology Department has three consultants and two of them are on deputation from GMC Jammu and their fate is also uncertain. If these shortcomings are not removed and the process of procurement of equipments is not accelerated, this project will also meet the fate of Eye Bank and Swine Lab of GMC Jammu, which could not be made functional even after five years of their announcement.

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