Plan to extend Welsh kidney transplants - Health News - News - icWales

Plan to extend Welsh kidney transplants - Health News - News - icWales

Plan to extend Welsh kidney transplants
by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

PLANS are being drawn up to enable more people to donate their kidneys to a loved one.
Currently about a third of potential living donors are unable to donate a kidney because they have a different blood group to the recipient.
But Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust is working with Health Commission Wales to secure the necessary funding to allow non-compatible blood group live kidney transplants to take place in Wales.
It is hoped the scheme, which will apply to live donors, will enable an extra 15 kidney transplants to be carried out every year in Wales, and help make inroads into the long waiting times for kidney transplants.
Dr Richard Moore, consultant physician at the nephrology and transplant directorate at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, said, “Nationally, the number of cadaveric organs donates is decreasing.
“Living donation has traditionally been between blood relations, but in the last 10 years that has expanded to those who are emotionally related, such as a spouse. But these donations have been between people with the same blood group.”
Patients who need a kidney transplant in Wales have no other option but to wait – on dialysis – for a cadaveric organ to become available if they do not have a compatible live donor.