CHANDIGARH-Marking another landmark leap in tertiary healthcare, the Bhagwant Singh Mann-led Punjab Government has scripted history as Government Medical College (GMC), Patiala, has successfully performed its first-ever kidney transplant, making it the first state-run medical college in Punjab to achieve this distinction.
This milestone comes after the state recorded successful liver transplants at the Punjab Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (PILBS), Mohali.
Punjab Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education and Research Minister Dr Balbir Singh, while addressing a press conference at Punjab Bhawan here on Tuesday, said that the complex surgical procedure was successfully performed on September 10, 2026.
Dr Balbir Singh highlighted that the entire treatment and procedure were delivered completely free of cost under the Mukh Mantri Sehat Yojana (MMSY), ensuring zero out-of-pocket expenditure for the family. He pointed out that the same procedure costs between ₹8 lakh and ₹12 lakh in private healthcare facilities.
“This marks a transformative chapter in Punjab’s public medical history, bringing advanced, life-saving organ transplant care directly within the reach of the common man, ” he said.
Sharing clinical details, the Health Minister stated that the recipient, a 37-year-old resident of Romana Patti, Namol in Sangrur district, had been suffering from kidney failure due to Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and had been on maintenance haemodialysis thrice weekly since December 2025.
Following thorough evaluations, his 29-year-old wife voluntarily came forward to donate a kidney, he said, while adding that both the donor and the recipient are clinically stable, doing well, and recuperating under close postoperative observation in the dedicated Transplant ICU.
During the press conference, Dr Balbir Singh also talked with the patient and his donor wife via video call to know the well being of both, while, he also congratulated the surgical team led by Prof. Sarbpreet Singh, comprising Prof. HBS Sandhu and Dr Supran Sharma, along with the nephrology team headed by Dr Thakurveer Kohli, and the anaesthesia team led by Dr Tanveer Kundra, Director Principal and HOD Medicine Dr RPS Sibia for achieving this milestone.
The Health Minister also expressed deep gratitude to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, especially Director Prof. Vivek Lal, and Prof. Ashish Sharma, Head of Renal Transplant Surgery and ROTTO-North, as well as the Department of Immunopathology at PGI Chandigarh, for their mentorship, hands-on training, technical guidance, and active on-site surgical supervision in establishing the renal transplant programme at GMC Patiala.