An NGO Mohan Foundation has signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which aims at increasing organ donation rates in India and the United Kingdom, with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).
The MoU was signed in the presence of J. Radhakrishnan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu and at the culmination of a consultative meeting for senior Transplant Coordinators from across the country, on 30th January 2015 in Chennai.
This is the second such national meeting that has been held to address the learning needs and challenges faced by senior transplant coordinators in the country. Transplant coordinators have a key role to play in the organ donation pathway and do the most difficult task of supporting and obtaining consent for donation from a grieving family.
Managing Trustee Sunil Shroff said that between February 2010 and December 2014, the families of 160 brain dead patients were counselled about organ donation. 106 families said "yes," making the choice to donate the organs of their loved ones to perpetuate life rather than having the organs buried or cremated, which is a 66 percent consent or conversion rate, which is comparable to that in the West.
The MoU will be reaffirmed in UK on the 26th of February 2015 in London at the House of Lords and its launch will be led by President of the British Medical Association Baroness Ilora Finlay.
