Karnataka to set up organ transplant and retrieval centres in 22 medical college hospitals | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Months after providing a Rs 1-crore fund to Victoria Hospital, affiliated with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, for an organ transplant and retrieval centre, the govt now aims to set up similar centres in the 22 medical college hospitals across the state.Health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who made this announcement at an event organised by Rotary Club of Organ Donation recently, told TOI, “While there is already a policy in place regarding organ retrieval centres in medical education institutes, implementation is missing.” According to the health department data, 28 medical institutes have non-transplant human organ retrieval centres (NTHORC). This number includes a handful of medical education institutes under the medical education department. Even with 28 NTHORC in the state, only 36 organ transplants took place in the last three years, from 2022 to 2024, reflecting underutilised capabilities. The demand for organ transplants is far greater than the donations and there is still a lot of stigma about organ donation. “There are a lot of families that are unwilling to donate the organs of their deceased kin,” said a health department official. Rao agreed grief counsellors were needed in govt hospitals to promote organ donations ethically. “We have to make the existing centres work as well and talk to families of brain-dead patients about this (organ donation) as an option to help other people. It requires guidance to families about the many lives organ donation can save.” Medical education minister Sharanprakash Rudrappa Patil believes there is lack of infrastructure for the proper functioning of the system. “If the health department supports infrastructure, we can do it. They need to fund us. We are discussing that.” He added a committee will also evaluate where these retrieval centres, in addition to transplant centres, are most needed in the state. “Organ retrieval centres will be of great help when there are transplant centres nearby. And transplants do not take place in medical colleges but in super-specialty hospitals. We see this in Bengaluru. When we expand retrieval centres across the state, we need to look at also establishing transplant centres. We will evaluate it, and discussions are ongoing with the health department for both transplant and retrieval centres,” the minister said.