Kerala govt forms advisory committee for organ transplant process improvement

Thiruvanthapuram: Govt has issued a notification to form an advisory committee to make the organ transplant process more effective in the state, said health minister Veena George.

The committee will operate under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act and will be responsible for assisting the appropriate authority and providing guidelines, the minister said.

The nine-member committee, which has a tenure of two years, will be chaired by the additional chief secretary or principal secretary of the health department. It includes a member secretary, medical experts, social workers, legal experts, and representatives from non-governmental organisations and organ recipients.

The medical experts in the committee are professor and head of the department of cardiovascular thoracic surgery and superintendent at Kottayam Government Medical College Dr T K Jayakumar and clinical professor and chief transplant surgeon at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Dr S Sudheendran.

The director of health services will be the member secretary. Public health expert Dr V Raman Kutty and social worker Dr Khadeeja Muthams are the social workers. Retd district judge M Rajendran Nair is the legal expert, and other members include former professor and head of the department of ophthalmology at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Dr V Sahasranamam and secretary of Liver Foundation of Kerala M K Manoj Kumar.

The director of the medical education department in the state will act as the appropriate authority, with Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation serving as the office.

The responsibilities of the authority include licensing hospitals that perform organ transplants, investigating complaints regarding violations of transplant regulations, and taking necessary actions.