PUNE On Tuesday, the health department suspended the organ transplant licence of Ruby hall clinic in connection with the Pune kidney racket. The licence has been suspended for all kinds of organ transplants - live and cadaver - until the final report of the ongoing enquiry is submitted.
Dr Sadhana Tayade, director of the directorate of health services, Maharashtra state, confirmed the news. “The licence of the hospital has been suspended until the final report of the ongoing enquiry is submitted. The suspension includes suspending the licence for both live donor and also cadaver donations while the hospital continues to function as non-transplant organ retrieval centre or NTORC.”
In the instant case, while the transplant took place on March 24, it was only on April 5 that the matter came to light after the woman, one of the donors, approached the media. On March 29, Ruby hall clinic filed a complaint with Koregaon park police station stating that a swap transaction between Amit Salunkhe and Sonal Kadamwas was performed at 7am on March 24 at the hospital.
The complaint letter by the private hospital to the police station stated, “Today, at the time of discharge of one of the donors, Mrs Sujata Amit Salunkhe (wife of Mr Amit Salunkhe) being the swap donor for Ms Sonal Kadam, claimed that she is not the wife and presented her identity card with a different name.”
{{/usCountry}}The complaint letter by the private hospital to the police station stated, “Today, at the time of discharge of one of the donors, Mrs Sujata Amit Salunkhe (wife of Mr Amit Salunkhe) being the swap donor for Ms Sonal Kadam, claimed that she is not the wife and presented her identity card with a different name.”
{{/usCountry}}The hospital defended its stand stating that the transplant was conducted only after all the statutory procedures of verification of documents and completion of formalities including police verification were completed. The said transplantation was approved by the regional authorisation committee for organ transplant of the Sassoon general hospital and that all the documents of both the donor and recipient were duly verified by the committee. However, suspecting foul play, the private hospital has now filed a complaint.”
Despite repeated attempts, the hospital did not respond to calls and text messages.