Imbibe lessons from int'l organ donation best practices in India: Mandaviya

Health Minister Mandaviya reviewed Organ Donation Policy and directed officials to imbibe learnings from international best practices

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reviewed the Organ Donation Policy on Wednesday and directed officials to imbibe learnings from international best practices for policy reforms to augment organ donation and transplantation in India.

Mandaviya reviewed the status of organ donations and transplants with senior officers of the health ministry here in the presence of Minister of State for Health Bharti Pravin Pawar, the ministry said in a statement.

In the 99th episode of his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon the citizens of the country to come forward for the noble cause of organ donation to save lives. This has given a fresh impetus to organ donation in the country, it said.

The number of total organ transplants in the country has substantially increased from less than 5,000 in 2013 to more than 15,000 in 2022, it stated.

According to the ministry, more organs per deceased donor are being utilised now due to better coordination through the network of Organ and Tissues Transplant Organisations at national, regional and state levels.

For example in 2016, 2,265 organs were utilised from 930 deceased donors, while 2,765 could be utilised from 904 deceased donors in 2022, it said.

The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) is working on a transplant manual as a step-by-step guide for implementation of organ donation and transplantation programme in hospitals and also on a standard course for training of transplant coordinators. Both these documents will be completed and released shortly, it added.

Recently, the government of India granted special casual leaves for up to 42 days to its employees who donate an organ, as a special welfare measure in public interest.