HYDERABAD: After almost a year of planning to set up a nodal agency to manage organ transplants in the state, the state government has finally issued a GO to streamline cadaver transplants. AP Network for Organ Transplantation (APNOS) will be established under Jeevandan scheme to act as a virtual coordinating mechanism to provide services to donors, recipients, hospitals and NGOs. A budget of Rs one crore has been earmarked for the scheme.

As part of the scheme, a list of patients across hospitals in need of organs will be made. Each time there is an organ donation, the officials will prioritise cases (of registered patients in need of organs) based on proximity (of donor and recipient) followed by the period for which the patient has waited for an organ. The senior-most patient on the organ waiting list would get priority, officials said.

According to the GO issued last week, all hospitals with a bed strength of 100 or above and having the required infrastructure to undertake transplantations will have to register with APNOS to avail the services under Jeevandan scheme. Hospitals that cannot undertake transplantations but have the wherewithal to extract organs of brain dead patients and preserve them also need to register under the scheme to avail its services. However, registration with APNOS is not mandatory and private hospitals can choose to not register, thus raising doubts among organ donation experts on the scheme's efficacy.