Taking cognisance of the reports that city hospitals were according preference to foreign patients over Indian for cornea transplants, the Delhi Administration has issued a circular that henceforth Indian patients would be given priority over foreign nationals for cornea transplants. A notification has been issued in this regard.
The administration has already set up a seven-member State level Authorization Committee (SlAC) to grant approvals for transplants to all the registered centers and hospitals, which do not have hospital-based committee. These hospitals have been performing less than 25 transplants in a year, under the Transplantation of Human Organs & Tissues Rules (THOT), 2014.
According to the data available with the city administration, there are some 56 registered centres for organ and tissue transplants in Delhi. Out of these 56 centres 40 centres have the capacity for cornea transplant, kidney at 20, liver at seven, heart and lungs at eight and intestinal, pancreas and small bowl at four places respectively.
Special Secretary, Health S B Shashank said in his recent order said, "While there is a long waiting list of Indian patients, the foreign nationals receiving transplantation of cornea without following the prescribed procedure has been brought to the notice of the Appropriate Authority. In this regard, attention of all corneal transplant centers and eye banks functioning in the National Capital Territory of Delhi is drawn to the laws governing the transplantation of human organs and tissues i.e. the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 and THOT Rules, 2014.”