The Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) would set up first intestinal transplant facility at the Cantonment-based Army Research and Referral Hospital here by this fiscal, said its director general Air Marshal D P Joshi.
The AFMS has already submitted an application to the government seeking its nod to start the facility, the lack of which has forced the Delhi gang rape victim, who required an intestinal transplant surgery, to move to Singapore for treatment.
“We are already in the process of starting the intestinal transplant facility. We have already applied to the government to start it in January. The (government) team may come to inspect the Research and Referral Hospital soon. We have adequately trained people for the purpose,” Joshi said.
He denied reports that the Army Research and Referral Hospital had been approached to treat the rape victim, saying the intestinal transplant facility did not exist in the country now.
Meanwhile, Vice Admiral A C Anand, director general medical services (Navy), said that shortage of doctors had held back the AFMS from carrying out intestinal transplant surgeries and from operating a full-fledged centre so far.
“The number of patients who require the treatment is small and it will not be economical to run a centre regularly as only one or two patients require transplants annually,” Admiral Anand, who is a trained intestine transplant specialist, said.