Extra funding is required to develop kidney transplant and dialysis services for the rapidly rising number of people living in the State with renal failure, Irish Kidney Association said today.
In a statement to mark the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week, Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) called on the Tanaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney to support the introduction of a living donor programme.
He said this is needed as part of a strategy to deal with the rapidly growing numbers of people with kidney failure. Last year the number of people requiring dialysis rose by 16 per cent.
However, only three of the 147 kidney transplants carried out involved a living donor and Mr Murphy said the number of donor kidneys available each year was no longer able to keep pace with the rising number of people coming onto the waiting list.
Such a programme would save money as well as lives, said Mr Murphy. A year's dialysis treatment costs approximately €70,000 per annum whereas a transplant costs an estimated €20,000 and then €8,000 every year afterwards for anti-rejection drugs. The majority of transplant patients also return to work whereas the majority on dialysis do not.
Mr Murphy said that Beaumont Hospital could perform an additional 50 to 60 transplants a year if a living donor programme was introduced.
Last year the number of people on dialysis increased by 167 to 1,210 despite transplants carried out and according to the IKA the number of people requiring dialysis since 2003 has increased by 33 per cent"
Mr. Murphy said that "patients need all the other stakeholders to come together in the patients interests so that Ireland can offer as good a service as our fellow Europeans enjoy".
Last year more 206 lives were extended and saved by organ transplantation including heart, liver, kidney, pancreas and lung.
- People can also buy 'Forget me Not' flowers and donor keyrings. Organ donor cards, keyrings and information factfiles are available from pharmacies, doctors surgeries and Citizen Information Bureaus. They can also be obtained from the Irish Kidney Association: Locall 1890 456 556