NOTTO urges states, UTs to act against eye banks not meeting targets

The step comes as NOTTO looks to link all cornea transplant centres and tissue banks, including eye banks, with a national registry database of patients maintained by it

The National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (NOTTO) has written to all states and union territories (UT’s) to warn non-performing eye banks to augment their eye donation activities or lose their registration if they fail to meet targets of cornea collection.

According to Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA), 1994 rules, each eye bank affiliated to state authorities has to collect a minimum of 500 corneas in five years, which roughly translates to at least 50 eyes and 100 corneas per year.

“The authority can consider issuing a warning notice to the eye bank for augmenting their eye donation activities otherwise their renewal may not be considered for the next term,” according to the letter signed by NOTTO Director Dr Anil Kumar.

 

The step comes even as NOTTO is looking to link all cornea transplant centres and tissue banks, including eye banks with a national registry database of patients maintained by it.

The transplant regulatory body has also asked states and Union Territories (UTs) to share the number of corneas and tissues donated, stored and transplants conducted by all such registered centres with it.

These actions come after a meeting on issues related to cornea donation, retrieval and distribution was held in May this year under the chairmanship of Director General Health Services (DGHS) Atul Goel.

Among other important actions discussed in the meeting was considering an opt-out method for cornea donation, whereby anyone who dies in a hospital will be presumed to be a cornea donor unless they register their dissent.

“As a policy, presumed consent for retrieval of cornea in all cases of hospital deaths of Indian citizens unless the person had opted out during his lifetime, should be implemented,” according to one of the action points suggested in the minutes of the meeting.