Gangtok: Kidney transplant services are expected to commence at Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial (STNM) Hospital from June this year, Health Minister G.T. Dhungel said.
“All the documentation work has already been completed, and we are now in the process of finalising the Memorandum of Understanding with Narayana RN Tagore Hospital, Kolkata,” Dhungel said. “Once this is done, the kidney transplant programme can be formally implemented in Sikkim.”
“We have been working on kidney transplant services for quite some time now,” he said. “Earlier, it was very painful for patients because they had to go outside the state. Now, most of the required specialties are almost in place, and the infrastructure that is needed has largely been brought in.”
Explaining the roll-out plan, Dhungel said, “What remains now is hands-on experience. For that, experts from the identified hospital will come here. In the initial stage, they will carry out the transplant operations themselves and also train our doctors.”
Calling it a Chief Minister–led initiative, he said, “This is actually the initiative of the Hon’ble Chief Minister. He saw the trouble people were facing and did not want patients to suffer any more.”
“Patients had to travel from Gangtok to Chennai or Kolkata,” Dhungel said. “They were moving from one corner of the country to another. It caused a lot of physical, mental and financial suffering, and this is something the Chief Minister wanted to stop.”
On the growing burden of kidney-related diseases in the state, Dhungel said, “If you look at hypertension, it affects around 22 per cent of the population, and in some studies the figure goes up to more than 40 per cent. Hypertension directly affects kidney health.”
“Diabetes is another major contributor to kidney damage these days,” he said. “Along with diabetes, obesity has also become a serious issue, and obesity further worsens conditions like hypertension and diabetes, which ultimately damage the kidneys.”
“All these factors have to be closely monitored,” the Health Minister said. “Hypertension, diabetes and obesity together contribute to a large number of kidney failure cases that we are seeing now.”
Dhungel said the state has adequate trained manpower to sustain the programme. “With the right process and proper procedures in place, we are hopeful that kidney transplant services will be successfully rolled out by June at STNM Hospital,” he said.
Also Read: Assam’s civil society condemns CM’s ‘hateful rhetoric’ against Bengali Muslims