In the aftermath of the kidney racket busted at Nelamangala, the Authorisation Committee (AC) is insisting that hospitals that conduct Kidney transplantation take responsibility for verification of the address of donors in cases of unrelated transplants. However, the Convener of the Nephrology Association of Karnataka (NAK) says that the AC is shifting responsibility and doctors can only verify the medical condition of the patient.

The Authorisation Committee was set up under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994 to prevent kidney commerce.

The AC is now insisting that a circular issued by Directorate of Heath and Family Welfare Services, dated March 23, 1998 be followed by hospitals. The hospitals  should also ensure the photograph and the address of the donor be attested by the local police authority in all cases of unrelated donors prior to submitting the application to the AC.

Circular
 “When the circular came out, some hospitals were doing the verification for a while but as police verification was taking place, they stopped”, explained Chairman of the Authorisation Committee, B S Reddy.

Now we are insisting hospitals to conduct verification of the donor’s address as a precautionary measure--as not only the hospital will verify the address but the later in the process, the police will too, he said.

Is this feasible? Many of the hospitals and the NAK don't think so. The Convener of the NAK, Dr Aravind says we are not keen to do this as we are not policemen and don't have the capacity to do this. As doctors we can verify medical heath, it should be upto the Police and the AC to take up verifications. We have asked our lawyers to reply to AC, he added.

Director, Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology, Dr Sudarshan Ballal too said that it would be difficult for hospitals to carry out the address verification. “We don't have the investigative authority” said Dr Ballal.
After the Nelamangala incident the number of unrelated transplants in front of the Authorisation Committee has come down from 30 a month to one or two a month.

 “The touts are frightened and the police investigations are also ongoing, ” reasoned ex-vigilance director of the Karnataka Lokayuktha and member of AC, Dr Sudarshan.