Odisha’s first liver transplantation unit, to be established at the SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack, is scheduled to be functional in January, 2014.
On advice of Minister Health and Family Welfare Dr Damodar Rout, a proposal for starting a liver Transplantation Unit at the SCB was initiated in the month of January last. The facility would be built in phases that include readying infrastructure, procurement of equipment and infusion of trained doctors, paramedics, transplant coordinators and counselors. The SCB has already earmarked space for the centre which would have advanced OTs, ICUs, pre-operation and post-operation wards and counseling centers.
The unit would function under the Surgical Gastroenterology Department but with a “core group” of trained doctors drawn from the home discipline as well as Medicine, Radiology, Pathology, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine departments. The training would be imparted by the Medanta Institute of liver Transplant and Regenerative Sciences, New Delhi.
By next weak, a technical team will visit Medant Hospital, Gangaram Hospital and Apollo Hospital at New Delhi to coordinate the training programmes and finalize other necessary aspects of the transplantation programme. Approximate cost of establishing the unit will be about Rs 4 crores.