The Irish Kidney Association has told Health Minister James Reilly that the loss of the discretionary medical card is having a “devastating personal economic effect” on the country’s 3,000 transplanted people.

Irish patients will be subjected to blanket opt-out organ donation rules if a new report by a major cross-party group is signed into law.

IT’S not the number of medals you bring home, it’s all about achieving your personal best, football manager, Mickey Harte, told Irish transplant athletes yesterday.

Striking doctors scuffled with police outside Greece's parliament today as anti-cuts protests spread beyond unions to professional groups.

A COOK book specifically focused on the needs of people on dialysis treatment has been launched by a Cork-based survivor of life-threatening kidney disease.

SPECIAL “donor coordinators” charged with speaking with relatives of possible organ donors who have died should be introduced, the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) said yesterday at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week.

AWARD-winning Irish TV screenwriter Frank Deasy has died while receiving a potentially life-saving liver transplant in an Edinburgh hospital.

A PLANNING objection by a Cork solicitor and his wife could delay a kidney dialysis unit in Limerick by up to a year, the company behind the development said yesterday.

BEAUMONT Hospital made Irish medical history yesterday by carrying out the first spouse-to-spouse living transplant.

SURGING obesity and diabetes rates are set to fuel kidney disease at a time when overcrowding at dialysis units is forcing patients to travel excessive distances three times a week for life-saving treatment.

ONLY a third of the cash required to meet the increasing demand for life-saving dialysis services this year has been provided in the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) spending plans, new figures reveal.

A FATHER who donated his right kidney to his son urged everybody to carry an organ donor card as it was revealed that more than 200 lives were extended and saved by transplants last year.

HOSPITAL patients in need of regular dialysis treatment could be placing themselves and other road-users in danger as a result of cutbacks to transport services for non-medical-card-holders in the west, according to the Irish Kidney Association.

The Irish Kidney Association pledged today to build a million-euro holiday centre for dialysis patients if the State would run it.

A €15 MILLION investment in kidney and pancreas transplantation could lead to savings of €4.4 million a year on the country’s spiralling dialysis bill.

The Irish Kidney Association has expressed concern about the increasing number of people needing kidney transplants in Ireland.

A SHORTAGE of transplant surgeons and kidney donors is leading to an “accelerating crisis” within the service, the head of the National Organ Procurement Service warned yesterday.

THE plight of Kerry man Billy Burke, whose life hangs on a thread as he awaits a lung transplant operation, has prompted some people to tear up their donor cards.

The Irish Kidney Association has called on the Health Minister and medical professionals to initiate a review of organ donation procedures.