Organ transplant committee formed

KATHMANDU, March 6 - The government has formed a nine-member Organ Transplant Coordination Committee as per the Organ Transplant Regulations, 2058.
Minister for Health Giriraj Mani Pokharel announced the formation of the committee at a three-day conference of South Asian nephrologists and urologists that kicked off here Thursday.
Other members of the committee led by Dr Bisho Raj Joshi are Dr Sudha Khakurel, Dr Rishi Kumar Kafle and Dr Prem Gyawali. Similarly, Dr Govinda Prasad Ojha, Director at the Department of Health Services, has been appointed the committee's member-secretary.
Doctors willing to conduct human organ transplants in Nepal have to procure a license from the coordination committee formed by the government.
The committee also decides if a medical facility in Nepal is capable of carrying out organ transplants. The committee had been non-existent for the past two years.
Despite being capable, Nepali doctors have not been able to transplant kidneys due to lack of transplant licenses.
As there is no kidney transplant facility in Nepal, patients seeking transplants go to hospitals and nursing homes in India.
According to nephrologist Dr Rishi Kumar Kafle, a patient spends somewhere between Rs 500,000 and Rs 1,500,000 for a kidney transplant in India. He says that kidney transplants can be done at cheaper rates in Nepal if private medical facilities are given the permission.