PM Dahal pledges to enhance capacity of Organ Transplant Center

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has pledged to expand the capacities of the Shahid Dharmabhakta National Transplant Center- SDNTC (Human Organ Transplant Center- HOTC).

In his address to a special ceremony organised to mark the transplant of 1000 kidneys by the Center today, the Prime Minister said this.

On the occasion, he announced to donate his body posthumously for the medical purpose.

The Prime Minister said, “Dialysis services were not easily affordable for general people in the past. People with poor socio-economic conditions had numerous challenges to access the service.”

“Bearing this in mind, the Center launched free dialysis services targeting such communities on March 29, 2013. Liver transplantation facility is also available in the Center and we are responsible for making it further strengthened and effective,” he said.

Land is required for the expansion of the Center, he said. “A decision was taken to provide 99 ropani of land in Sallahghari for the Center when I became Prime Minister for the first time. I heard that the decision was not implemented when I quit as PM. The issue will be addressed,” he said.

Out of kidneys being transplanted on around 300 patients across the country annually, the Shahid Dharmabhakta National Transplant Center accounts for 200.

“There was a situation in which a large chunk of money flowed to foreign countries for kidney transplant. But, the Center has to some extent managed to address the situation back in Nepal,” he said.

He also thanked and expressed his happiness over the role of the Center in stemming the outflow of hundreds of thousands of Nepalese rupees to foreign countries for kidney transplant.

“The Center alone cannot bear the pressure of kidney transplant. There is a need to expand it across the country at the earliest. There is an aim to expand it in all seven provinces. I am serious about your demands for the government to develop the Center as the National Transplant Science Academy so as to produce required high level workforce.”