Chennai: Investigations into alleged kidney-related malpractice at private hospitals in Tamil Nadu have been stepped up, with authorities now treating earlier complaints as “kidney theft” rather than mere “irregularities,” according to the latest developments.
While the state is considered a leader in organ donation, allegations have surfaced about wrongdoing in transplant procedures. Organs retrieved from brain-dead donors are meant to be allotted through a registered waiting list, a process overseen by the State Organ Transplant Authority.
However, officials note that monitoring is more limited in cases where living donors provide a liver or kidney, typically to blood relatives. Taking advantage of these gaps, middlemen and some linked to the private medical sector are alleged to have pressured economically vulnerable people into donating organs and arranged forged documents to portray them as relatives of recipients.
One such incident was reported from Pallipalayam in Namakkal district. During the earlier DMK regime, the kidney transplant licences of two private hospitals were cancelled as part of an inquiry. Separately, complaints also emerged that doctors and intermediaries from Tamil Nadu were involved in kidney-related malpractice affecting farmers in Maharashtra.
After the change in government, both investigations have been intensified, and cases have been filed against the hospitals and doctors concerned. Minister Arunraj said a special team is probing the matter and that the names of the doctors and hospitals involved would be released soon.
