THE NUMBER of beds available to the national kidney transplant team at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital needs to be significantly increased, a specialist at the hospital said yesterday.
Transplant surgeon Dr David Hickey said the team currently has eight beds but it would need 25-30 for the amount of work it is trying to do.
He was commenting after it emerged at the weekend that two donated kidneys had to be sent to the UK at the end of January due to resource issues including bed shortages at Beaumont. This is despite the fact that there are 580 Irish patients waiting for kidney transplants.
Seven patients had received transplants at Beaumont in the 48 hours before the additional organs became available on January 26th. Dr Hickey said it was “a travesty” the additional organs had to be sent to the UK but he made the decision to send them abroad as it would have been unsafe to transplant any further patients at Beaumont without additional resources.
He told RTÉ's Morning Irelandthere was no guarantee the problem would not recur.
He will meet Minister for Health Mary Harney next week to discuss his concerns.
Ms Harney told reporters in Dublin yesterday it was “an exceptional situation” which resulted in the organs being sent the UK.
“But one would have to be concerned at the possibility that any Irish patient would lose out,” she said.
“I am meeting with the team from Beaumont who have asked to see me, Dr Hickey and his team . . . in the next 10 days or so,” she added.
Ms Harney said she was delighted the organs in question were used, albeit in another jurisdiction.