SGPGIMS to get new centre for kidney transplant

Lucknow, Dec 14 The Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) will get a new dedicated facility for kidney transplant from the next year.

Professor Radha Krishna Dhiman, director, SGPGIMS, said, "The hospital performs 130 kidney transplants in a year. However, within a year, the institute will start a kidney transplant centre and increase postoperative ICU beds. We aim to perform 500 kidney transplants in a year. Meanwhile, the organ transplant building is ready and has already become operational."

The aim is to improve the existing infrastructure and increase the number of experts, operation theatres, nurses and other support staff to reduce the waiting period for kidney patients.

"The 200-bed kidney transplant centre is ready and from next year, we are going to utilise the building. Currently, we can perform around 2-3 transplants every week. This would be increased to 10-15 per week once the centre becomes operational," he added.

Kidney patients from several parts of the country and even from across the border, come to SGPGIMS as the complex surgery is performed here at Rs 2.5 - 5 lakh as compared to Rs 12-15 lakh in private hospitals.

Only a small percentage of kidney patients in the state are able to get timely transplants.

According to experts, Uttar Pradesh has as many as 40,000 kidney patients in need of transplant.

However, not more than 250 kidney transplants are performed across the year in the state. Out of these, 130 transplants are performed at SGPGIMS itself.

At present, 659 patients are waiting to get a kidney transplant at SGPGIMS. If conditions remain the same, a lot of them will not be able to get the transplant even next year. In fact, there have been cases where patients waited for nearly five years. This long waiting period risks their lives.

Besides SGPGIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences and a few other hospitals of Noida and Ghaziabad perform the kidney transplant.

Apart from these, Apollo Medics and Medanta Lucknow are among the private players conducting the surgery.

With SGPGIMS administration aiming to triple the number of transplants they perform in a year, there is hope for patients.

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