Apollo, Group of Hospitals sign MoU to provide world-class liver transplants

Bengaluru: To bring their world-class liver transplant program to patients in Central India, the Apollo Hospitals Group signed an MOU with Group of Hospitals - DMIMS, DU on the occasion of World Organ Donation Day on Friday. The partnership is expected to benefit patients with complications due to end-stage chronic liver disease as also in rare cases of sudden failure of a previously healthy liver.

The MoU was signed by Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director- Apollo Hospitals Group and Dr Sandeep Shrivastava, CEO, Group of Hospitals - DMIMS, DU

"Starting with India's first successful liver transplant in 1998, Apollo Hospitals pioneered liver transplantation in India and the region," said Dr Anupam Sibal.

The number of patients with liver disease has shown a sharp increase over the last decade. An estimated 2 lakh patients die of liver failure or liver cancer annually in India, about 10-15% of which can be saved with a timely liver transplant.

"After almost 58 years, various factors like the standardisation of the donor organ procedure, technology behind the recipient organ transplantation, recognition and application of the multi-disciplinary approach, improved immune-suppression, has led to the success rate," said Ms Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, Dr Ved Prakash, Pro-chancellor, Dutta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, said that there is a need for 20,000 transplants every year but we are only able to meet 45 per cent of the requirement. He added that no concern of health care would be completed and be capable of catering to the real cause if we do not evaluate three factors- availability, accessibility, and affordability.

Talking about making liver transplant more affordable, Dr Anupam said that the cost is much higher abroad and it also needs to be taken into count.

"You also need to take into account the cost that could be incurred if a person does not get a liver transplant. It's often much higher and leads to death," said Dr Manish Varma. Though they don't have any particular schemes to make liver transplants more accessible, they advise that the public must get mandatory health insurance to cover expenses.