Organ donors: Regulatory authority for transplants announced

Will establish recipient registry; will evaluate outcome, quality

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government issued a notification on Wednesday for the establishment of a Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority (MTRA) under Section 5 of K-P MTRA Act, 2014. The authority will provide regulations for removal, storage and transplant of human organs, tissues and cells for therapeutic purposes in the province.

The notification, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, read the authority shall regulate, monitor and control all human transplants.

It read the MTRA will establish a provincial registry, as well as regional networks to evaluate the quality and outcome of transplant centres. The authority will work towards enhancing and promoting transplants undertaken in the region.

“It shall establish a pool of voluntary donors and a registry of potential recipients and will regulate it in a prescribed manner,” the notification read. No hospital or medical institution shall carry out transplants of organs unless it is recognised. Only MTRA is able to confer recognition to medical institutions and hospitals for transplant surgeries.

The authority comprises 10 members including Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, secretary for health, transplant specialists at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) and Institute of Kidney Diseases, gastroenterologists and haematologists from HMC and Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad as well as representatives of a private transplant set-up.

Officials said the act had been passed by the provincial legislature in 2014, however it could not be notified earlier due to certain reasons.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st,  2016.