National body urges Goa MC to set up harvesting facility

The national agency regulating organ transplant is pushing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to set up an organ harvesting facility in the state.
"Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has to play a pivotal role in getting an organ harvesting facility set up in the state.
"We need to have a state organ and tissue transplant organisation (SOTTO) here," Vimal Bhandari, Director, National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), told PTI today.
Bhandari, who is here on the invitation of the Indian Medical Association's Goa unit, met Parrikar yesterday at Porvorim and discussed the issues related to organ harvesting and transplants.
"The chief minister wants to give support to the (initiative) but he is a bit apprehensive about legal matters. The rules about organ harvesting and transplant are very strict," said Bhandari.

Bhandari said at the national level, the scenario on organ harvesting is "very good".

"We started with only 800 organ transplants in 2013 which rose to 4,000 in 2016. We have 301 centres in the country which are doing this activity, of which 200 are registered with us.
"We have trained 10,000 coordinators from different parts of the country in processes related to organ transplants," he said.
"We have also trained retrieval surgeons. We started from 9,000 people pledging to donate their organs and that figure has zoomed to 13 lakh now. Our target is to have 20 lakh pledges this year," Bhandari said.

NOTTO is a national-level organisation set up under Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.