ifty-four-year old Sandesh Desai from Sanguem is one amongst the thousands of patients who have to travel twice every week to the Goa Medical College for dialysis.
Sandesh is also one of those waiting for a kidney transplant. However, what is ironical is that even though the donor has been identified from the family itself, the lack of facilities and non-functional kidney transplant unit at GMC has added to his misery.
His family points out that doctors say they cannot do anything about it and the only option was to take the patient elsewhere, perhaps to (neighbouring states, for transplant.
“How can we afford such huge costs of 20 to 30 lakhs,” asks his wife.
According to the doctors, the chances of living with dialysis for over five years was barely 30 per cent, while a kidney transplant increased the chances up to 75-80 per cent.
The GMC organ transplant unit was started in 2014 when Manohar Parrikar was the chief Minister and Laxmikant Parsekar the Health Minister.
But despite being the only facility authorised to undertake kidney transplants, GMC managed to conduct hardly 14 such surgeries, leaving hundreds of other patients waiting in queues due to absence of authorisation to private hospitals to conduct the organ transplants.
With such a dwindling performance record of GMC, several other patients are forced to go to hospitals in metros like Mumbai, Bangalore and more recently to neighbouring Belgaum, to get the kidney transplant done, specially when a family member is a donor.
The development comes on the backdrop of the State government including organ transplants as the services covered under its ambitious DDSSY scheme.
According to sources in the GMC, there is no Head of Department (Nephrology), as Dr J P Tiwari, Head of Department (Nephrology) was given a two-year leave, without getting any replacement, thus bringing the kidney transplant operations to a grinding halt.
Moreover, Dr Tiwari is learnt to have joined a private hospital for the two-year period in Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, another nephrologist Dr Amol Mahaldar also resigned subsequently from GMC, raising doubts and suspicion.
Experts seem ruffled and unable to unravel the mystery as to why Dr Tiwari was allowed to go on a long leave or even why Dr Mahaldar’s resignation accepted, knowing well the consequences.
“Looks like some people deliberately wanted to make GMC facility non-functional so as to benefit a private hospital which had recently applied for permission for kidney transplants,” an expert who did not want to be named said.
In April this year, the government appointed a nephrologist Dr Sheetal Lengde, but there was no clarity on the terms of the appointment.
In order to undertake kidney transplants, it is mandatory that the hospital had the services of a full-time nephrologist.
“Though Dr Lengde has agreed to be available full-time at the GMC when transplant surgeries are conducted, it doesn’t make him a full-timer. The government has to issue a clear order in terms of his appointment,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
Kidney transplants in GMC are jointly conducted by the departments of urology and nephrology.Admitting that there is shortage of staff in GMC, including nephrology, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, said, “we are trying to fill vacancies in GMC, including the nephrology department, on a war footing.”
Still a lot to be desired at GMC
At present there are 200-odd patients in GMCs waiting.Add to that those undergoing treatment at private hospitals and in urgent need of transplant, and the figure for those waiting for transplant in the state will drastically increase. However, those statistics are not available.
Law mandates that a kidney donor must be strictly a family member.For those patients whose family members decline to be willing donors, there is no choice, but to continue with dialysis. There are also cases where sometimes family members even back out after initially agreeing to donate a kidney.
Private hospitals applications
Interestingly, though the state-run facility has not been conducting the transplants, the Appropriate Authority Committee has rejected applications of Manipal Hospital on three occasions.
Sources at the Manipal Hospital confirm that following their application, the Health Department had conducted inspections to check the kind of instruments and other facilities available for conducting the same.
Margao-based Victor Hospital (former Apollo Hospital) was another hospital, whose request was never considered.
Note:
1. All the above committees had rejected Manipal’s application on various grounds.
2. The names of latest committee members, who approved the applications, not revealed under RTI
