The National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) has issued a directive to streamline tissue and cornea donation/retrieval/distribution across the country. The directive requires a linkage of tissue transplant centers, cornea transplant centers, tissue banks, and eye banks with the national registry maintained by NOTTO.
It may be recalled that on May 14, 2024, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Director General of Health Services wherein it was identified that there is a necessity for a centralized registry system.
Additionally, the Transplantation of Human Organs & Tissues Act, 1994 (THOTA) mandates the central government to maintain a national registry for organ and tissue donors and recipients.
Therefore, in light of this, NOTTO has issued the present directive.
Hospital Responsibilities
All tissue transplant centers, cornea transplant centers, tissue banks, and eye banks must register with the National Registry maintained by NOTTO.
Hospitals can register online on the NOTTO website.
Hospitals are required to share data on:
- Patients waiting for tissue/cornea transplants.
- Tissue/cornea donations and transplants performed.
- Tissue/cornea stored and utilized.
For any help in registration, the hospital can contact:
- Telephone numbers: 011-26164770, 1800-11-4770, 8802839496 (during office hours) or
- Email: dir@notto.nic.in, itnotto@gmail.com.
After online filling up of form for linking with NOTTO, an attested hard copy of the filled form must be sent to Director NOTTO’s office. Thereafter, the login account of the hospital/centre will be activated. After activation of the account, the hospitals/centres will be able to register their patients for including in the waiting list of respective tissue/cornea transplant. Hospitals should enter the details digitally in the NOTTO Registry and update the same regularly.
Eye Bank Responsibilities
The eye banks have the following responsibilities:
- Eye banks shall provide the list of their associated/feeder Cornea donation/ retrieval centers to the State Appropriate Authority, which should also be shared with the NOTTO.
- Further Eye banks will be required to take the responsibility of maintenance of required standards as per THOTA, 1994 by associated/feeder Cornea donation/ retrieval centers.
Action Against Non-Performing Eye Banks
NOTTO has also observed that many non performing eye banks who have been granted registration. As per the THOTA rules 2014, a minimum of 500 corneas must be collected in 5 years by each eye bank i.e. on average 50 eye/100 cornea collections per year.
Therefore, NOTTO has called upon the appropriate authority to examine the data on eye/cornea collection annually by the registered eye banks. In cases of less performance, the authority can issue a warning notice to the eye bank for augmenting their eye donation activities otherwise in case of under- performance their renewal may not be considered for the next term.
State Responsibilities
State authorities are responsible for:
- Collecting monthly data on tissue/cornea donation and transplantation in the prescribed forms.
- Submitting this data to NOTTO.
- Furnishing a list of eye banks and their associated cornea donation/retrieval centers to NOTTO.
- Monitoring eye bank performance and taking action against non-performing institutions
