Belfast Trust says ‘unprecedented critical care pressures’ led to decision to suspend kidney transplants
Kidney transplant operations have been canceled in Northern Ireland due to added pressure on health services due to coronavirus.
The Belfast Trust said it was “unfortunate” that it had “suspended” its transplant program.
Earlier this year, the trust matched the UK record for the number of kidney transplant operations carried out within 24 hours.
The trust said 61 kidney patients would be affected by the outage.
More than 150 successful transplants were performed in 2020, with more than 100 of the surgeries performed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While most other kidney transplant centers across the UK have closed due to the coronavirus, Belfast has been able to remain open.
The operations included the equivalent of five kidney transplants in 124 hours, a UK record.
Most of these surgeries were performed using kidneys from deceased donors. Live donor programs were also suspended during the lockdown period earlier this year.
“Unprecedented pressures of care”
According to a report in the Irish News on Monday,kidney transplants will now only be performed on patients for whom it is difficult to find a suitable match, and only when a deceased donor kidney becomes available.
Living donor transplants will not be carried out for the time being.
image source, NHS blood and transplants
A record number of life-saving kidney transplants have already taken place in NI in 2020
The trust said: “HSC Nightingale is facing unprecedented critical care pressures which are leading to significant reductions in theater staff and impacting on surgeries across the trust.”
He added that there are concerns about the potential risk of transmitting the coronavirus to immunosuppressed kidney patients and healthy living donors.
A spokesperson said the suspensions will be reviewed weekly to ensure programs can resume as soon as possible.
“Decisions like this are never easy,” they said.
“We fully understand the impact this will have on our patients and would like to sincerely apologize to all patients and families affected.”
The trust said it had contacted all patients affected by the suspension to inform them of the situation.
