BEAUMONT HOSPITAL has confirmed three donor kidneys were sent to the transplant service in the UK last month because of “highly exceptional” circumstances.
The hospital said the decision to send the organs abroad arose not as a result of problems with bed capacity per se but rather as a result of a combination of factors.
“Due to capital works currently being undertaken at Beaumont, there has been an interim reconfiguration of the beds in the transplantation unit. This means that the beds used for patients immediately post-operatively are currently in a different location to the main ward to ensure their safety, and that has issues for provision of nursing by the highly trained specialist staff.
“On average, there are approximately two renal transplants every four days over the course of a year. Patients remain within the renal transplant unit for between four and seven days following their operation. On the day in question, seven patients had received transplants in the preceding two days. In addition, a patient with a pancreas transplant had just been transferred from the intensive care unit to the transplant unit and it would have been unsuitable to move this patient from the unit. Such circumstances are extremely unusual,” the hospital said.
Beaumont stated that management and clinical staff had sought unsuccessfully to address these issues when they arose and that “a situation in which organs might have become unviable for transplant was averted by transferring them to another hospital”.
Beaumont said that on January 26th four kidneys and one pancreas became available for transplant. “Two kidneys were used for paediatric transplants in Temple Street Children’s Hospital by members of the Beaumont transplant team, and three organs were sent from Beaumont Hospital to the United Kingdom Transplant Service.”
