Gangtok, August 15: Sikkim on Saturday entered a new phase of specialised healthcare with the establishment of its first Organ Transplant Centre and Post Transplant ICU at STNM Hospital, Sochakgang.
The facility was inaugurated by Governor Om Prakash Mathur and Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, marking a milestone for the state’s healthcare sector.
Chief Minister Tamang said there was no such facility in Sikkim before he assumed office and that strengthening the health sector had remained a key focus of his government.
He said specialists from Rabindranath Tagore Narayana Hospital (RN Tagore), Kolkata, had trained doctors and medical teams at STNM to build local expertise. With the training now in place, doctors in Sikkim will gradually undertake transplant procedures themselves, reducing the need for patients to travel outside the state.
The Chief Minister said patients would no longer be routinely referred outside Sikkim for transplant-related treatment and only complicated cases requiring specialised intervention would be referred to centres outside the state.
The first two kidney transplants at the new centre are being performed today. Pema Diki Lepcha is donating a kidney to Neching Lepcha of Gangtok, while Dal Bahadur Chettri is donating to Shova Chettri of Bhusuk.
The centre is expected to provide patients with access to transplant and post-transplant care within the state, reducing the financial and logistical burden of travelling outside Sikkim for treatment.