PANJIM: Mango Foundation, a South Goa-based NGO, has approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the State Health Secretary and Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary to immediately notify Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) as a State Organ and Tissue Transplantation Organisation (SOTTO) with criteria based transparent waiting lists for organs and linking the same to the Regional and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO), Western Region and National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO).
The NGO has also prayed for designated organ and tissue retrieval teams in each district and a dedicated website linked to the ROTTO and NOTTO sites for organ procurement, sharing and transplantation and registering patients.
They have also sought directions to State Health Secretary to procure immediately necessary cross-matching facility and other equipment necessary to facilitate organ and tissue transplantation and make the same available at GMC.
In the petition it has been submitted that State Health Secretary and Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary have failed to set up a SOTTO for Goa and that the State has failed to procure the necessary cross-matching facility and other equipment necessary to facilitate organ and tissue transplantation and make the same available with GMCH despite it being a registered organ and tissue transplant hospital.
“The said failures have resulted in recipients or prospective recipients from the state of Goa losing out on opportunities of life saving organ and tissue transplantation to recipients from other states,” the petition states.
