Two MCHs likely to start liver transplant surgery

Two government medical college hospitals (MCH) in the State may soon get facilities for liver transplant surgery.

Sources in the Health Department said on Tuesday that the hospitals at Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam would have an operation theatre, liver transplant intensive care unit, and other required equipment in the coming days.

The demand for liver transplant surgeries in government hospitals have been a long-pending one. The cost in private hospitals is very high, and often beyond the reach of the common man. It is learnt that the government is planning to bring organ donation and surgeries under one system.

The Cabinet recently decided to set up a State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation. There is already a similar entity at the national-level, which lays down protocols and guidelines. The sources added that the government was also taking steps to avoid delay in organ transplantation.

However, Liver Foundation of Kerala, an organisation representing people who have undergone the surgery in the State, have demanded that the government bear the expenditure of both the surgery and the treatment thereafter.

M. Rajesh Kumar, general secretary of the foundation, told The Hindu that earlier efforts to conduct liver transplant surgery at government medical college hospitals at Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur had reportedly failed. He claimed out that though there were facilities for the surgery at Kozhikode as well, they were not being utilised.

“Lakhs of rupees are spent for each liver transplantation surgery. A majority of the patients manage the funds from their relatives, friends and acquaintances. Very few get the money from people who run charity organisations,” Mr. Kumar said. The money thus collected often gets exhausted after the surgery. The patients require around ₹25,000 a month for the tests and medicine later.

“The Social Justice Department had a scheme to give a pension of ₹1,000 to us. It was stopped in 2015. The government should provide some sort of financial assistance to us,” he added.