There is a great buzz about the chain of Apollo Hospitals being allegedly associated with an international "cash for kidney" scam. The scam alleges that impoverished people from Myanmar are encouraged to sell their kidneys in order to get profits.
On December 5, however, the Apollo Hospitals groups straightway said a big No to the allegations, and called these allegations "absolutely false, ill-informed, and misleading."
Let's understand the complete scam, bit by bit.
Understanding the "cash for kidney" racket
According to a report by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK, young yet poverty-stricken people from Myanmar are being lured into going to the Apollo Hospital in Delhi and are paid for donating their kidneys to patients who need them around the globe.
The report said that the scam includes “elaborate forging of identity documents and staging of ‘family’ photographs to present donors as the relatives of would-be patients.”
What does the law say?
Well, in general, a patient cannot receive the donation of an organ from a donor who is a stranger, according to Burmese and Indian laws.
The investigation
The Telegraph got curious to know the inside story and thus sent an undercover to the Myanmar offices of Apollo. The Telegraph reporter acted as a relative of a sick lady and posed that she urgently requires a kidney transplant, but is unable to find a donor in the family. In the Apollo Myanmar offices, the reporter who was acting as the relative was told that a “stranger would be sourced to donate their kidney.”
Then, the reporter was made to talk to a Burmese man aged 27 by an Apollo agent. The, am said that he wished to sell his kidney because his parents were elderly and were not in a sound condition financially.
Additionally, the reporter was told that a patient can select their donor. He can then make the payment to the individual.
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The payment against the kidney
Further in the investigation, the chief of the Apollo Myanmar operation provided an Apollo-branded costs document” to the disguised reporter. The document contained a myriad of expenses related to the kidney transplantation procedure. The expenses included those of flights (i.e. Rs 21,000 each way) and the "registration for the medical board", which cost Rs 16,7000, along with other expenses such as drawing up of a family tree (Rs 33,000), and more.
Additionally, the document encompassed the amount that a patient can be expected to incur, which could go up to Rs 1,79,500. However, this amount did not include the amount that would be given to the kidney donor, which further ranged between 70 to 80 lakh in a majority of cases.
The scam, violation of laws, and the "facade"
Next in the story comes the transplant authorization committee. The committee comprises officials including a state government officer, a central government officer, two hospital consultants who practice there as doctors while not being on the payroll of the hospital, and two retired IAS officers. When the patient makes an upfront cash payment, the donor is brought to India. The individual and the patient are made to appear before the transplant authorization committee, which will then conduct an interview.
Ideally, the responsibility of the transplant authorization committee is to carefully review the submitted documents and confirm the relationship between the patient and the donor. However, according to the investigation in this case, meeting the responsibility in a fair manner was far from true.
The disguised reporter conducting the investigation was told by one of the Myanmar agents of the hospital that the transplant authorization committee comprising many Apollo Hospital officials as well, is nothing but "just a facade". As per the agents, the committee asks questions that are superficial in nature relating to the relationship between the kidney donor and the donee.
Not to miss, the agents are also involved in forging family trees, including forging marriage certificates, household documents, fake pictures, and more to falsely showcase familiar relationships between the paid donors and the kidney recipient.
Notable doctors involved
Yes, as per the report by The Telegraph, there are some doctors too involved in the scam. The report talks about Dr Sandeep Guleria, a UK-trained doctor who has also been a receiver of the prestigious Padma Shri, involved in conditing the surgery in such transplant cases.
Additionally, according to some prior reports, Dr. Sandeep Guleria was expected to be summoned for interrogation relating to a separate kidney scam associated with Apollo Hospital in Delhi in the year 2016.
Are such scandals new?
Not at all. In the year 2016, two secretarial staff of the Apollo Hospital were arrested along with a group of donors and brokers for allegedly being a part of a separate kidney transplantation scam. However, as of now, the investigation into the kidney scandal has not concluded to date.
Government's reaction
An investigation has been ordered by the Indian health ministry into Apillo Hospital, Delhi, after the hospital has been allegedly linked to the cash-for-kidney racket by media reports. The Indian health ministry's National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization has instructed SB Deepak Kumar, Health Secretary of Delhi, to get the issue examined, and take appropriate action. as per an official document, the Secretary has been instructed to create an action-taken report in a week's time.
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