Hyderabad: Jeevandan, Telangana’s flagship deceased organ donation initiative, is increasingly dependent on private hospitals, with govt institutions contributing only a fraction of the total donations and transplants recorded so far.According to official Jeevandan data up to 2025, private hospitals accounted for 1,710 organ donations – nearly 28 times higher than the 61 donations recorded by govt hospitals, including NIMS, Osmania, Gandhi and ESIC. Overall, private hospitals contributed nearly 97% of total organ donations under the programme.The disparity is also reflected in transplant numbers. While govt hospitals facilitated 722 organ transplants, private hospitals carried out 4,245 procedures. Kidney transplants formed the largest share under the programme, followed by liver, heart and lung transplants.Health experts said the imbalance exposes critical gaps in public healthcare infrastructure and transplant preparedness.Organ donation programmes depend heavily on ICU availability, ventilator support and timely declaration of brain death. “Since most govt hospitals are overburdened with emergency and trauma care, this leaves limited manpower and coordination for transplant activities,” said a senior Jeevandan official.Experts pointed out that identifying potential donors and counselling grieving families requires dedicated transplant coordinators, a system that remains stronger in private hospitals than in the public sector.“Private hospitals have specialised transplant teams working round the clock, whereas many govt hospitals still lack trained counsellors and standardised donor identification protocols. This leads to missed opportunities for cadaver donations,” said the official.Doctors warned that the situation directly affects economically weaker patients, who largely depend on govt hospitals for affordable transplant care. They said patients are often forced to turn to expensive private institutions due to limited transplant capacity in the public sector.Experts stressed that strengthening ICU infrastructure, appointing dedicated transplant coordinators, and conducting awareness drives on brain-death organ donation in govt hospitals are essential to improving equitable access under Jeevandan. They added that increasing public sector participation would help Telangana build a stronger and more sustainable organ donation network.Experts said the biggest corrective step would be establishing dedicated transplant surgery departments in major govt hospitals, similar to specialised units at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.They said the govt hospitals in Telangana still lack fully developed transplant ecosystems despite expansion plans. “Patients naturally go where specialised transplant departments, surgeons and post-operative care systems already exist. Private hospitals built these systems years ago, while govt hospitals are still developing them,” a senior transplant expert said.Officials noted that Gandhi Hospital and Osmania General Hospital have not run major transplant programmes for decades, while transplant activity at NIMS remains limited compared to private hospitals. They added that the proposed Centre of Excellence at Gandhi Hospital and upcoming facilities at TIMS Sanathnagar could improve access if backed by dedicated infrastructure and trained manpower.“Transplants require ICUs, organ retrieval systems, transplant coordinators, immunology labs and long-term follow-up teams. Once a dedicated department is established, patient trust and donor networks also grow,” the expert added.
