Spain and India sign collaboration agreement on donation and transplantation

The agreement includes support to create strategies, the creation of networks for the availability of organs and tissue, transportation and transplantation, bio-monitoring and organ quality assurance, among other aspects. Spain will also train healthcare professionals as transplant coordinators.

For its part, India undertakes to set up a National Register for the donation and transplantation of organs, in line with the standards of the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation managed by the ONT, upon appointment by the WHO. The agreement, which includes a monitoring committee, has an initial duration of five years, which may then be extended.

Following the signing of the agreement, Beatriz Dominguez-Gil ratified, before representatives of the Indian Embassy in Spain, the firm commitment of the ONT to "continue contributing to the international reputation of the 'Spain Brand' through the dissemination of the Spanish transplantation model".

"Sharing knowledge and experiences with other countries from what we have learnt in recent years forms part of the DNA of the ONT", stressed Beatriz Domínguez-Gil.

India, which has more than 1.3 billion inhabitants, has a great potential to develop a donation and transplantation system, based on the principles of the Spanish model, which will allow the needs of many of its patients to be dealt with. At present, it performs live donor transplants, but deceased donor transplants are almost non-existent.