In an effort to promote and streamline the process of organ donation to help hundreds of needy patients, the south Indian state Andhra Pradesh government has launched a unique scheme to boost the humane practice.
'Jeevandan', a comprehensive scheme that would cover various aspects relating to declaration of brain death, infrastructure, coordination and public awareness for organ
transplantation was announced by the government keeping in view the low rate of transplantations in AP.
Despite the elapse of 14 years since the passing of the Act for organ transplantation in the state and rules by the Legislature and Government, the number of transplantations
occurring in Andhra, especially "cadaver transplantations" have not increased significantly, a government order issued here said.
This happened primarily because of lack of a centralised coordination mechanism and the absence of a streamlined procedure for facilitating and regulating it on an end-to-end
basis, the order said.
To evade such drawbacks and to ease its various processes, the government is planning to set up a web portal -- www.jeevandan.org where real-time information about the availability of organs and allocating them to the needy patients would be available.
Noting that effective functioning of 'Jeevandan' scheme depends substantially on the portal, the government said its salient features include -- receiving applications of hospitals for registration as Non-Transplantation Organ
Harvesting Centres (NTOHC) and Organ Transplantation Centres (OTC), receiving applications for registration with the AP
Network for Organ Sharing (APNOS) by OTCs and NTOHCs.
The government has also laid down a slew of procedures for running the portal effectively. It has mandated that the Director of Information and Public Relations should undertake an extensive campaign for promoting the 'Jeevandan' scheme
among the public.
The other innovative aspects of the scheme include appointment of Transplantation Coordinators and professional counsellors for its efficient implementation.
The hospitals (both NTOHCs and OTCs) shall have a full-time transplantation coordinator who should be able to handle the situation arising out of the donation and transplantation, the government order said.
Besides, the hospitals should also appoint professional counsellors to motivate the relatives of the deceased persons to take a decision in favour of organ donation.