PANJIM: After a gap of 14 months, the kidney transplant facility at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) at Bambolim will resume operation from the first week of January, 2018. Kidney transplants in GMC were stopped since October 2016, for want of a full-time nephrologist. 

Addressing media persons on Friday, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane announced that the kidney transplant facility will re-start from first of week January, next year. 

The minister said that the facility at GMC stopped functioning for a year now and the government would restart as assured. He also informed that four patients are awaiting kidney transplant. 

Rane said that the government had appointed nephrologist Dr Shital Lengade a few months ago.

GMC is the only hospital in Goa authorised to conduct kidney transplants in the State. However, it has performed only 14 such surgeries in the last five years.

“We are clear that first GMC will restart the facility and then we will consider the private hospitals,” Rane said. 

It may be recalled that a full-fledged kidney transplant programme at the GMC had come to a halt after Prof Dr J P Tiwari, a nephrologist, proceeded on a two-year leave.

Kidney transplants in the GMC are jointly conducted by the departments of urology and nephrology. In order to undertake kidney transplant, it is mandatory to have a full-time nephrologist in the hospital.