Karnataka to get state organ transplant organisation

Bengaluru ,April 16, 2016, :The move comes even as private hospitals in several states are contemplating writing to the Union government seeking more clarity on setting up NOTTO and SOTTO. The city will soon house a State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO), which will function under the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO). This is one of the changes being considered in the wake of the guidelines issued by the Union government that each state have a SOTTO. Karnataka will fall under Chennai, which has been chosen to have the Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation in the South. Besides Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep will come under Tamil Nadu. These changes are aimed at facilitating better co-ordination between the state governments and at the national level as far as organ and tissue transplantation are concerned, according to Deputy Director, Medical, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Dr R Raghunandan. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced in the recent budget that the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK) would be renamed Jeeva Sarthakathe, an organ donation facilitation cell. The move comes even as private hospitals in several states are contemplating writing to the Union government seeking more clarity on setting up NOTTO and SOTTO. Private hospitals in Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu recently received letters from NOTTO mandating them to register with the organistion, failing which their registrations would be cancelled. - DHNS