Kidney transplants will be renewed at Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital

The government is taking steps to renew renal transplant at the Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital (IGGGH), Director of Health and Family Welfare G. Sriramulu said on Tuesday.

Addressing the first press conference after assuming charge, he said the State Organ Transplant Committee was looking into the modalities to relaunch the programme at IGGGH. “Various committees are working on it. We plan to conduct renal transplants at the hospital in the next two months,” he said. After the government renewed cardiac surgeries, doctors have performed 10 procedures. The Health Department had entered into an understanding with Frontier Lifeline Hospital in July to perform surgeries at IGGGH.

Mr. Sriramulu said under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, a universal health insurance scheme of the Centre, 3,188 persons had availed themselves of the benefit in the Union Territory. They received treatment costing around ₹1 crore, he added. Of the 1.90 lakh beneficiaries identified for the health insurance scheme, 1.24 lakh got registered with the department, he said, adding a special drive had been launched at Public Distribution System outlets to register the remaining beneficiaries.

J. Ramesh, COVID-19 nodal officer, who was also present at the press conference, said so far 60% of the population had been given the first dose.

Around 15% had received both doses, he said. There was still hesitancy among the public to get vaccinated. The benefits of getting vaccinated outweighed the cons. The trend now revealed that people infected after vaccination did not need hospitalisation or treatment. They continue with their routine life, he said. “People should get vaccinated without any hesitance,” he added.

Special camps to vaccinate students aged 18 and above would be held at educational institutions before their reopening, he said. The Hindu