In a major push to enhance organ and tissue donation in India, the central government has directed all states to designate special teams in hospitals and upgrade trauma centres to facilitate organ and tissue retrieval from road accident victims.
The move comes as India continues to face a severe shortage of organ donors, with the rate standing at less than one deceased donor per million population.
The Centre has also advised states to organise training programmes at the state and district levels for first responders — including police personnel, ambulance drivers, and paramedical staff — and to register hospitals as organ retrieval centres.
In a letter to state authorities, Dr. Anil Kumar, Director of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) under the Union Health Ministry, outlined these measures aimed at strengthening the country’s organ donation ecosystem and saving more lives through timely transplants. The letter said, that India faces a critical shortage of organs for transplantation, with thousands of patients on the waiting list for different organs.A large number of deaths occur due to road traffic accidents (RTAs), especially involving young and otherwise healthy individuals.
According to the report titled “Road Accidents in India 2023” of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, around 1.7 lakh people were killed in road accidents in the year 2023 who could have been potential organ donors, the letter said.“Many of these potential organ donors are lost due to lack of timely identification and referral,” it said. While all efforts will be made to save the lives of accident victims, organ donation may be considered in identified brain stem death cases as per the procedures laid down in the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 and its rules.
“The first responders in emergencies, namely police personnel, ambulance drivers, emergency medical technicians (EMT), para-medical staff, etc, can play a vital role in identification of potential donors and timely referral and harvesting of organs from those who give consent for donation,” Kumar said in the letter.Kumar said that mechanisms should be in place for the flow of information from the first responders to the transplant coordinators available in the nearest trauma centres or hospitals or medical colleges.
The letter recommended that Regional and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTOs/SOTTOs), in coordination with state authorities, conduct training programmes for first responders. These sessions should cover basic knowledge of organ donation, identifying and maintaining potential donors, and counselling families for consent. It added that timely and appropriate referrals to designated trauma or organ retrieval centres could significantly improve the country’s deceased organ donation rate.