Lanka to probe TS kidney racket

​Colombo: Sri Lanka has formed a three-member panel to probe an organised organ harvesting racket involving patients and donors from Telangana, two days after it banned kidney transplants for foreign nationals.The panel consisting of two lady doctors appointed by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne has launched the probe. Its members will visit hospitals linked to the racket, officials said on Saturday.

Senaratne said he had ordered a temporary ban on kidney transplant operations involving foreigners after Indian police warned Lanka that some patients from India had paid donors for organs and had the transplants carried out at private hospitals in Colombo. Telangana police had filed cases against six Lankan doctors from four private hospitals in Sri Lanka for alleged involvement in the kidney donor racket in which the procurers, donors and patients were Indians but the doctors doing the transplants were Lankans.

Lankan doctors’ trade union, the Government Medical Officer’s Association, said they would take stern action against any of their members if they were found involved in illegal transplants. The Health Ministry said that the current temporary ban involving foreign nationals for kidney surgeries may be extended depending on the panel’s report.

Media here reported that four local hospitals had been arranging transplants for kidney patients from India with organs from their home country.