What is the 'cash-for-kidneys racket' at Apollo Hospitals?

Apollo Hospitals is currently embroiled in a controversy after the Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper alleged the involvement of India’s biggest private hospital group in illegal “cash for kidney” racket. According to the daily’s investigation, the hospital allegedly lures impoverished people from Myanmar to sell their kidneys for profit. On Tuesday, the hospital group issued a statement vehemently denying the allegations and called the report “absolutely false, ill-informed, and misleading.” The allegations have also prompted the country’s healthy ministry to probe the matter. Here’s all we know about the scam. The “cash for kidney” racket According to The Telegraph, poor young villagers from Myanmar are being flown to Apollo Hospital in Delhi and paid to donate their kidneys to rich patients around the world. “It’s big business,” the report said, quoting one of the racket’s “agents. The racket involves “elaborate forging of identity documents and staging of ‘family’ photographs to present donors as the relatives of would-be patients. Under Indian and Burmese laws, a patient cannot receive an organ donation from a stranger in normal circumstances,” it stated. According to the investigation, a reporter pretended to be a relative of an ill aunt who desperately needed a kidney transplant but had no family members who could donate. Upon contacting Apollo’s offices in Myanmar, the undercover reporter was informed that “a stranger would be sourced to donate their kidney.” The reporter was then connected by an Apollo agent to a 27-year-old Burmese guy who informed that he needed to sell his kidney as his elderly parents were “not in a good financial condition.” Additionally, a patient can select their donor and then set up a payment plan with that person, the reporter was informed. [caption id=“attachment_13473252” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Patients and their attendants are seen inside Apollo hospital in New Delhi, India. Reuters[/caption] The reporter was given a “Apollo branded costs document” by the head of Apollo’s Myanmar operation. It listed a number of costs associated with kidney transplantation, including “registration for the medical board” (Rs 16,700), flights (Rs 21,000 each way), and the creation of a family tree (Rs 33,000). Additionally, the document stated that a patient may have to pay up to (Rs 1,79,500) in total. However, this does not include the money donated to a donor, which often amounts to between Rs 70 or 80 lakh. The Telegraph report also mentioned the name of Dr Sandeep Guleria, who received his training in the UK and Padma Shri receipent. The daily was informed by patients and agents that Guleria was the surgeon who performed the transplants. The report also cited a 2016 report by Deccan Herald, mentioning that Guleria “was expected to be summoned for questioning in connection to a separate kidney scandal linked to Apollo’s Delhi hospital.” For those unversed, two members of the Apollo secretarial team at Indraprastha Hospital were arrested in 2016 for allegedly participating in a kidney racket, together with a group of brokers and donors. The accused’s inquiry has not yet been completed. The “façade” committee The donor is flown to India after receiving an advance cash payment. The person then makes an interview appearance with the patient before the transplant authorisation committee. In order to create familial ties between patients and paid donors, the agents also fabricate family trees, home records, marriage licences, and pictures. “Household registrations, suggesting the donor and patient live together as relatives, are also created… These faked documents, along with a series of test results that confirm compatibility but not a genetic relationship, are then presented to the hospital authorisation committee for rubber-stamping,” according to the investigation. The committee is in charge of examining the documents that have been sent in and verifying the donor-recipient link. Two retired IAS officers, a central government officer, a state government officer, and two hospital consultants—who are not employed by the hospital but practise medicine there nonetheless—are among its members. The committee, which also consists of a number of representatives from Apollo Hospital, is “just a facade,” according to one of Apollo’s Myanmar agents, and it just inquires about the patient-donor relationship in passing. Apollo denies allegations Indraprastha Medical Corp, an associate of Apollo which manages its two hospitals in the capital region of Delhi, said it had initiated an inquiry into the matter and called the allegations against it “absolutely false, ill-informed and misleading.” According to the official statement, IMCL requires every donor to provide Form 21 notarised by the appropriate ministry in their country. “This form is a certification from the foreign government that the donor and recipient are indeed related. The government-appointed transplant authorisation committee at IMCL reviews documents for each case including this certification and interviews the donor and the recipient,” it said, adding, “It further re-validates the documents with the concerned embassy of the country. The patients and donors undergo several medical tests, including genetic testing.” “These and many more steps far exceed any compliance requirements for a transplant procedure and ensure that donor and recipient are indeed related as per applicable laws. IMCL remains committed to the highest standards of ethics and to delivering on our mission to bring the best healthcare to all.” Health ministry’s probe The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), which falls under the health ministry, has asked Delhi Health Secretary S B Deepak Kumar to “get the matter examined, take appropriate action … and furnish an action-taken report within a week”, according to a letter seen by Reuters. A committee was being formed to probe the matter and details of donors and patients have been sought from the hospital, Kumar told local media.