Patient should have been on kidney transplant list from the time he started dialysis two years ago, Cork councillors hear
At the end of 2024 there were 559 people on the kidney transplant waiting list in Ireland. Photo: Getty.
Organ transplant waiting lists need to be reviewed to ensure they’re up to date with a Cork councillor recounting the case of a patient undergoing kidney dialysis who discovered he wasn’t on the transplant waiting list at all.
Speaking at this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, Cllr Kate Lynch said she was made aware of the case of the man who was on home dialysis for 18 months before going on to haemodialysis at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
“The problem is that in the past two months he’s had a lot of hiccups, therefore the dialysis is starting to be not as effective as it should be. When he rang Beaumont [hospital] to check to know exactly where he was on the [transplant] list he was told he wasn’t on the list because according to their records he wasn’t on dialysis,” the Macroom councillor said.
“This is two years on now [from starting dialysis]. This obviously is a serious breakdown of communication somewhere because this patient should have been on a list from the time he started on home dialysis, not to mind to when he actually transferred to the hemodialysis in CUH.”
The Fine Gael councillor described it as a “matter of life or death” for affected families.
“They’re standing to order every time the phone rings, they think they’re going to be called to Dublin or whatever and then to be informed after the bones of two years on treatment that you had never made the list is a very, very serious situation.”
Cllr Lynch said that since then, “four or five other cases have been brought to light as well and that’s just Cork.”
She put forward a motion calling on Cork County Council to write to Health Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeil and the HSE requesting a full review of all organ transplant waiting lists.
The motion was widely supported by other councillors at the meeting.
“When you have such medical conditions like that, the worry should be alleviated to be going through dialysis or to be going through any illness and then to find out that you were never on a list in the first place, that’s actually a nightmare scenario,” said the Mayor of County Cork, Cllr Mary Linehan Foley.
“This is life and death for people, it’s their whole quality of life, and they have enough to worry about not to be thinking about ‘Am I on a list?’ I think that that list should be accurate and up to date. Accuracy is crucial,” said Cllr Kay Dawson.
Cllr Danny Collins said the issue applies not only to transplant lists.
“The buses to Belfast are still going for cataract operations. A lot of these people are on waiting lists for three to four years and some of the people would have been told when they landed in Belfast that they’re lucky they came up because otherwise they would have lost the sight of their eyes. Basically it should be a full review of everything,” he said.
The council agreed to write to the health minister and the HSE about the issue.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
