The State Organ Transplant Centre (SOTC) at Gandhi Hospital would take at least around 10 months to be open to public.
As per plans, six organs can be transplanted at the centre that will have modular operation theatres (MOT) with advanced equipment, Intensive Care Units (ICU), and other facilities. Tenders for this would be floated in a week or two.
Health Minister Harish Rao had announced on May 22 that the organ transplant centre would be established on the eighth floor of the government hospital. He had added that nine OTs would be constructed where kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, knee and hip replacements would be performed along with cochlear implantations.
“Of the nine MOTs, two will be allotted for transplantation of kidneys, three for liver, one each for lungs, heart, and orthopaedics,” said a senior official.
Currently, doctors at major government hospitals share the same OTs to perform transplantations as well as other medical procedures. With SOTC, a set of OTs will be exclusively dedicated for organ transplants.
OTs at Cancer Hospital
Apart from Gandhi Hospital, eight MOTs are set for inauguration at the MNJ Institute of Oncology.
Director of the institute Dr. N. Jayalatha said that this would include an MOT where surgeons will perform operations using robotic arms. The other MOTs are allotted as per speciality such as gynaecology, musculoskeletal, surgical gastroenterology, and others.
The director said that the waiting period for elective surgeries will come down from the current one-and-half or two months to just one or two weeks. The new facility would be inaugurated in two weeks.
