National Transplant Management Centre to monitor organ donations

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena proposed to establish a National Transplant Management Centre that will manage all transplantation in a healthy and ethical manner.

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena at the annual sessions of the Sri Lankan Society of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine: 2011 held at the Colombo National Hospital recently.

He said so addressing the annual sessions of the Sri Lankan Society of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine: 2011 at Colombo National Hospital.

"I request the Chairman of the Liver Transplant Congress and all others engaged in the transplantation process to outline the functions and procedures, and develop guidelines to govern these practices and present them to me to take necessary action for implementation," the minister said.

Minister Sirisena said kidney, liver and heart transplantation are very common and performed following well established procedures. Due to the rising success rate of transplants, the need for more organs has become critical.

"Therefore, we need to establish a healthy and ethical transplant coordination and management unit to obtain and provide the required human organs in an equitable manner. Organ trading is banned in many countries to prevent the exploitation of poor and underprivileged donors who are unable to make informed choices, and suffer potential medical risks," the minister said. He added that in some countries organs are removed from executed prisoners for transplantation. In other countries, some villagers have only one kidney because they have sold the other to wealthy persons often from different countries. This is one of the many reasons that give rise to medical tourism.

"We should be cautious and avoid such unfortunate situations happening in our country," the Health Minister said.

"Sri Lanka must be the only country in the world that provides free education from primary to University level and free healthcare service to the entire nation through a range of State healthcare institutions located throughout the country. Free healthcare includes medicines, dental services, major surgical operations and organ transplantation.

"The government allocates approximately 10 to 12 percent of the national budget annually for free healthcare services," the minister added.