As a result of COVID-19, organs from deceased donors are regularly being rejected instead of being used for life-saving transplants.
There is a shortage of surgical facilities available for kidney transplant operations at Belfast City Hospital due to the demand for intensive care.
In November, transplant services were suspended in Northern Ireland due to pressures on the health service caused by COVID-19.
Recently, kidneys from deceased donors have been left unused.
When the moratorium was first introduced, the restrictions meant that kidney transplants could only be performed for patients who had difficulty finding a matching kidney, and only when a deceased-donor kidney was available.
Live organ transplants were abandoned altogether.
Northern Ireland's chief medical officer, Dr Michael McBride, apologised and said pressures on the health service had “forced us to take difficult decisions”.
He said it was not an easy decision for authorities but was driven by high levels of community transmission of the virus.
“You have to keep in mind that for some highly sensitive people it may be difficult to find something that fits,” he said.
“We have a cadaveric kidney donation program going on, but that's not the case with a living kidney donation program.”
Dr McBride said the decision would be kept under constant review and affected patients would be kept under monitoring to ensure their condition did not deteriorate while waiting for a transplant.
“Stop the scandal”
DUP MP Ian Paisley raised the issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
“Since October 2020, 24 patients have been denied a kidney transplant in Northern Ireland,” he said.
“How can this Congress persuade health officials to use unused public and private operating room space to resume kidney donor transplants and halt the growing scandal of discarding viable transplant organs?”
Belfast carried out its highest ever number of transplants in 2020, including 101 transplants in 101 days, despite the pandemic.
The centre was one of the few transplant centres in the UK that remained open, in partnership with the Royal Victoria Hospital.
The first transplant operation was performed in the private sector.
In a statement, the Belfast Trust said it would continue to carry out transplants for patients who are extremely hard to match.
Discussions have presumably begun about how to restart the transplant programme at centres outside the Belfast Trust area.
