The recent busting of a kidney transplant racket at a ‘hospital’ in Kanpur, once again, draws attention to the vast gap that exists between the demand and supply in this area of health care. The law on transplants has actually made the availability of organs very much more difficult for those in need of them. As is the case in many other areas, the law has only succeeded in driving the business further underground. While the rich and powerful can manage a donor who seems to have complied with all the strict provisions of the law, or get the transplant done abroad, the average person in need of a kidney has been left with little or no recourse.
As is usually the case, regulations are often passed in India merely to conform to laws in first world countries, and under pressure from various NGOs focused on particular interpretations of human rights. Unfortunately, the measures necessary to solve the actual problem are rarely taken. In the case of organ transplants, for instance, nothing has been done to develop a national registry of those in need of transplants, as well as organ donors, so that those in need, no matter how poor or without influence, can benefit when their turn comes. It is also a sad fact that a large number of persons die in all kinds of accidents and other incidents, but their organs cannot be put to the use of those in need. In fact, if the occasional family does make the effort to donate organs of a family member, it hits the headlines – so rare is the act.
Amongst other health problems, kidney disease is rapidly on the rise in India. The governments at the Centre and the states have done next to nothing on providing relief to patients. Dialysis centres are few, mostly in the private sector. It is exorbitantly expensive to obtain dialysis. At many places, as is tragically the case with Indians, those providing the service cut corners to make more money, risking the patients’ health. The interests of the patient are not being placed first. As in everything else, those with money and clout can get services outside the system. This why there is little interest in doing the hard work required to serve the general public. If the government were to stop paying for the private medical care of politicians and officials, the situation would dramatically improve.
It is no wonder that even ‘doctors’ without a degree, leave alone specialisation in kidney transplants, can build up a vast network and even bring in clients from abroad. It may surprise those ‘shocked’ at this discovery that many of those ‘served’ by such doctors consider them no less than gods for having given them a second lease on life.
