Reply

Simon Fletcher

Renal Transplant Unit Walsgrave Hospital Coventry UK Email: simon.fletcher{at}uhcw.nhs.uk

Sir,

I have discussed this response with Dr Higgins and we agree with Dr Ahmad that patients should not try to go around the world trying to buy a kidney. We are aware of a number of good units in the Indian Subcontinent, but they do not operate on a for profit basis.

The whole point of our original paper was to highlight the results of those units where kidneys can be bought, in a group of Coventry patients. Some of these patients had a number of medical problems and were advised by us that transplantation was high risk. What is so appalling is that these units agreed to operate with limited knowledge of the patients’ medical problems or any formal referral. It is therefore not surprising the results were so bad. A number of patients were long-waiters and these patients developed a number of complications that we would not have expected in the UK.

The issue of travelling abroad to receive a kidney has been taken up by the media in the UK. We have had no more patients from Coventry going abroad for a kidney recently. We are trying to address the issue of Asian long-waiters, encouraging living donation, discussing with UKT regarding tissue typing and trying to develop a regional urgent waiting list for patients who have been on the waiting list for over 10 years.

The publication of Dr Ahmad’s letter should stimulate more discussion about the problems for this group of patients and highlight that buying a kidney can cause more problems than it solves for the patients.

Conflict of interest statement. None declared.





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