State plans outcome-registry for clearer organ transplantation

Thiruvananthapuram: Seeking to bring in more accountability in organ donation initiatives in the State, the government is set to launch an outcome-registry to create awareness among people about results of organ transplantations.

The Kerala Network of Organ Sharing (KNOS), the state government's nodal agency for organ retrieval and sharing, said the outcome-registry would be a separate website with details of health status of patients who undergo organ transplantation and the performance details of hospitals.

KNOS is coming up with the outcome registry in view of increasing number of organ donations taking place in Kerala, where people once kept themselves away from the initiative due to personal inhibitions and religious reasons.

A senior health department official Thursday said the outcome registry would be operational within one month and it is now being run on a trial basis.

"An outcome or survival registry is compulsory in all developed countries in connection with organ transplantation initiatives. But there is no such mandatory system in India. We are trying to introduce such a system in our state which will make the health delivery system more transparent and accountable," KNOS nodal officer Dr Noble Gracious told PTI.

Though most private hospitals charge heavily for organ transplantations,there is no particular system at present for public to evaluate their performance and the survival rate of patients who undergo surgeries there, he said.

"In many western countries, at least five year survival rate of patients is a must for hospitals or transplant centres to function. However, there are some hospitals in our country which claim hundred per cent results without giving any evidence to prove their claim," he said.

The new outcome registry would function as a performance appraisal of hospitals and transplant centres, he said.