The transfer of section officers in Bihar’s health department has held up the inspection before granting approval to commence kidney and liver transplant services at Patna’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said officials aware of the development.
The health department had to cancel the inspection of AIIMS on August 2.
The scheduled inspection at Ruban Memorial Hospital in Patna, the private facility accredited with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH) which was to be re-inspected for renewal of registration for organ and tissue transplant after five years, was similarly called off on Wednesday.
“A few key officials in the section concerned have been recently shifted in the health department. The new incumbent in the section concerned is not familiar with the rules governing organ and tissue transplant. We are trying to get the official concerned back,” said a health department official, requesting anonymity.
The AIIMS had moved the state health department last December, but the latter is yet to inspect the institute, a mandatory prerequisite before grant of approval for organ and tissue transplant.
Dr Rakesh Chandra Sahay Verma, director-in-chief, health services, said, “We had to postpone the inspection at AIIMS yesterday due to unavoidable circumstances. We are yet to fix the next date. We will fix it as soon as possible.”
Dr Verma is the chairman of the six-member inspection committee.
“We were ready for the inspection but got the information about cancellation of inspection at the eleventh hour, just before we were to leave for AIIMS,” said professor and head, department of gastro-intestinal surgery at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Dr Manish Mandal, who is also the chairman of Bihar’s State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO).
Dr Mandal was among the six members of the inspection committee.
The IGIMS, Ruban, Paras-HMRI and BIG Apollo Spectra are the four facilities approved for organ and tissue transplant in Bihar.
