By IANS
Chennai : The union health ministry will put in place a National Organ Transplant Programme by early 2008 and make online registration of all transplants compulsory, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said here Saturday.
Organ transplant centres will be set up in 10 cities, including four metropolitan cities, the minister said while speaking at a seminar for medical professionals.
Through these Organ Retrieval Banking Organisations (ORBO), “the government will initiate programmes to carry the transplant process further ahead,” Ramadoss said.
The need for organs was very high and “donation of organs of brain-dead persons will be encouraged by providing awards and free railway passes to the relatives,” he said.
His comments come in the wake of several scandals in kidney transplant this year in Chennai, Mumbai and other cities.