District-level logistics services to be set up to help organ transplantation activities

The Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (K-SOTTO) is planning to issue a new tender to empanel service providers or agencies to help it with the logistics involved in organ and tissue transplantation activities.

The new tender is being issued after the earlier tender floated by K-SOTTO failed to garner adequate responses to provide State-wide transport services. The new tender will try to find suitable district-wise service providers. Such a logistic service will help amplify the efficiency of the procedures and activities involved in organ transplantation, an official attached to K-SOTTO told The Hindu. 

The logistic services will be used in the transport of organs between retrieval and transplant centres, transport of cross-match samples between hospitals/labs, provision of logistic services to empanelled doctors, transport of inspection teams for transplant licence verification in hospitals, among others. This also involves ambulance services for transferring deceased donors from donor hospitals.

The organisation is looking at ambulance and taxi services for transporting organs, samples, deceased donors, and also medium-sized vehicles such as vans that can help in the commute of teams for holding workshops, training programmes at hospitals and medical institutions.

While the tender announcement was issued in July, the lack of adequate responses made K-SOTTO reconsider the matter and issue a new one seeking district-wise services. “The lukewarm response from service providers is probably because their services would be used only during instances of organ donation, which is very less in the State,” said an official. 

K-SOTTO executive director and State convener of the Mrithasanjeevani organ transplant programme Dr. Noble Gracious said that such a logistic service would help save time involved in organ transplantation procedures and activities. “We are thinking of starting it district-wise, focussing on Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kozhikode, where frequent organ transplantation activities are being carried out. This will then be expanded to other districts as well,” said Dr. Gracious. 

At present, all such logistic services are arranged personally by doctors or hospitals. “Having such a service will bring more efficiency and streamline the logistic services, ensuring seamless and faster responsiveness towards organ transplantation activities,” he added.