New Delhi, Aug 3 (IANS): There's a need to promote deceased organ donation in India, said Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Health and Family Welfare on Saturday, while urging officials to ensure zero wastage of organs.

“There is a need to promote organ donation from deceased persons and brain-stem dead people to meet the huge need for organ donation in the country,” the MoS said while addressing the 14th Indian Organ Donation Day ceremony organised by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO).

With a mere 0.1 per cent of the population donating their organs after death in India, the country faces the lowest organ donation rate worldwide. In stark contrast, Western countries have 70-80 per cent deceased organ donation.

The MoS also called the family members of deceased organ donors “an inspiration for the entire country.”

“They are doing the greatest service to mankind by saving the lives of numerous people,” said the MoS adding that one organ donor can give new life to up to eight people.

Patel also stressed the need for concerted efforts of every individual and the institutions to help India realise its vision of becoming one of the leading countries in organ donation and transplantation.

She also urged officials to take all steps to ensure that no received organs are wasted before getting transplanted.

Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra stressed the need to strengthen the healthcare system to ensure that there is no organ wastage.

“When we receive any brain-dead person, the time is less and we have to harvest the organs in 12 hours and the transplant has to happen within a short window,” Chandra said.

Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog at the event highlighted the huge gap between the demand for and supply of organs and noted the need for institutional reforms in the government hospitals to take up the challenge of organ transplantation.

“There are only around 750 institutions providing organ transplantation services,” he said while encouraging other institutions to also come forward to provide such services.

Informing that kidney transplantation is covered under the AB PM-JAY (Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) Dr Paul called upon insurance companies to cover organ transplantation.