Doctors' Association for Social Equality

Chennai (PTI): The Centre will launch a National Organ Transplant Programme in three to four months to make organ transplants more transparent and to create more awareness about them, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters here, Ramadoss said organ transplant centres would be set up at ten places, including the four metropolitan cities, with central grants. Online registration of transplants would be made compulsory, he said.

The need for organs was very high and donation of organs of brain-dead persons would be encouraged by providing 'prizes', 'awards' and free railway passes to the kin, he said without elaborating.

The Centre will introduce an amendment to the Organ Transplant Act to make punishment for illegal transplants more stringent.

On compulsory rural service for medical students, he said Dr Sambasivam committee had been constituted to look into the objections and to elicit the opinions of students, doctors and people. The Centre would take further action on the issue after the committee submitted its recommendations, he said.

He alleged that some people were inciting students against rural service for their selfish gains. Students should be service-minded and they should make use of their valuable experience for the betterment of rural folk, he said.

The government has modernised rural health infrastructure, but it still lacked sufficient number of doctors as they were not willing to serve in rural areas, he said.

The government was only collecting about Rs 4000 as annual fees from the Government Medical College students, while rest of the amount came from public money, whereas private medical students were paying about Rs four to five lakh, he said.

Tamil Nadu occupied the numero uno position in health services and the co-existence of Indian and modern medical system was one of the reasons behind this feat, he added.

Earlier, he inaugurated an inter-disciplinary seminar for medical professionals on "Detection and management of child abuse".