Chennai: Tamil Nadu has been recognised for its efforts in organ donation. Even so, the demand supply gap continues to be enormous. On this World Kidney Day, nephrologists urge for increased awareness among doctors and hospitals on the need for the state to see one donation a day as against the current rate of one donation in two days. Urging for more participation from hospitals, especially government hospitals, Dr Sunil Shroff of Mohan Foundation, a not for profit organisation that promotes organ donation and transplantation, said making this dream a reality is not impossible.
“Awareness among doctors needs to be increased more than among the public. Also, more stress needs to be laid on the prevention aspect. We have to prevent kidney diseases. That is the only way to bridge this gap between demand and supply,” he said. The country sees a demand of over 200,000 kidneys with not more than 8,000 transplants being carried out, he said adding that organ donor source needs to increase. “Awareness is essential among general public to ensure they understand the seriousness of organ donation. However, doctors and hospitals should be educated on the same too,” he said.
When medicos graduate from medical colleges as doctors, the colleges should essentially organise something on organ donation and brain death. If they do that, in 10 years’ time, a majority of the doctors will understand the gravity and the concept of organ donation,” said Dr Valsa M., a nephrologist from Vellore. “There are close to six lakh practitioners in India. Even if we try hard, we won’t be able to reach out to more than a few thousands. Therefore, we need to start now in order to see an impact in the long run,” she added.
With kidney diseases on the rise, there is great difficulty in meeting the needs of many patients. “The state needs to do at least 365 donations a year, but we do only around 180. The country, on the other hand, needs to do around 10 transplants a day. Though not a big target, it will take great efforts on part of all stakeholders to make it a reality,” said a health expert.
