Medical advances leave kidney transplants in crisis

IRELAND’S kidney transplant programme is in crisis because, ironically, less people are dying on our roads and others are being saved through advances in neurosurgery.

The waiting time for a transplant used to be between eight to nine months but has now increased to up to two years.

An increasing number of patients are being referred for transplant but the supply is not meeting demand because fewer people, particularly young people, were dying in intensive care units, Minister of State at the Department of Health, Ivor Callely, said yesterday.