Transplant investment could save €4.4m a year on dialysis
The Irish Kidney Association (IKA) said the number of people requiring kidney dialysis has risen by 14.5% in the past year and these 140 extra patients will cost the Department of Health an extra €9.5m a year.
The IKA is seeking an increase in the number of transplantations, from about 135 a year to 200, so people can live better quality lives, while saving the State millions.
Each dialysis patient is believed to cost the State up to €68,000 a year.
An annual injection of €3m over five years would allow the development of a network of intensive care co-ordinators, extra transplant operating theatres and extra transplant surgeons and support staff.
The IKA also called on Health Minister Mary Harney to set up a working group on transplantation - a body they claim former Health Minister Micheál Martin promised and failed to deliver.
IKA chief executive Mark Murphy said: “This relatively small investment into transplantation would yield enormous benefits. It is a win-win situation for all. The other liver, heart and lung patients, who can’t have dialysis, would also benefit from the investment.”
Director of the Department of Transplantation at Beaumont Hospital David Hickey supported Mr Murphy’s views and said it would be a “very prudent investment which would have obvious benefits for patients and yield indisputable financial savings”.
There were 966 people on dialysis in June 2003 compared to 1106 in 2004.
Each session of haemodialysis costs the State €435.
People need on average of 156 sessions per year.
The average bill for a person on kidney dialysis is €67,860 per year.
Ireland has a rate of 33 kidney and kidney pancreas transplants per million people.
133 kidney transplants took place here last year.
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