What’s more shocking is that the average wait time for such patients may stretch up to eight years. Around 6,000 kidney failure patients, awaiting transplant from outside the family, are currently on the waitlist at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) due to difficulty in finding a match.
For other organs too, the wait list is almost the same. Only government hospital carrying out transplant in city Of all the government hospitals in Chandigarh, PGIMER is the only institution currently carrying out organ transplants. Speaking at the event, Dr Ashish Sharma, head of the department of renal transplant surgery, said more than 80,000 patients are listed for kidney transplant on the national registry of organ transplant. He added that around 9,000 patients had been registered in PGIMER’s kidney transplant waiting registry over the years. Of these, approximately 3,000 had undergone transplants, while 6,000 are still awaiting suitable donors. The Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, has a licence for organ retrieval but does not perform transplants, while the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, carries out neither organ retrieval nor transplantation.
For kidney failure patients, a longer waiting period means a constant battle for survival while also dealing with the mounting financial burden due to treatment costs and other challenges.
Dr Sharma said that although the number of transplants has increased over the years, the long waiting list continues to remain a challenge.
