Organ Donation Week: Restarting renal transplantation in the UK

The COVID pandemic affected many aspects of our renal services and due to various factors including increased risks to immunosuppressed patients the transplant units either reduced or suspended their programme. All the clinical teams in discussions with patient groups and national transplant organisations, have restarted the renal transplant from live and deceased donors in a cautious manner. In line with national guidelines and local services, each transplant unit has developed to pathways to offer safe care at all stages of renal (before, during and after) transplantation and to the live kidney donors. The standard of care is the same as pre-COVID period and the units

Therefore, we suggest patients on the waiting list to discuss with their transplant teams about the local plans including following;

1. The local hospital policy on Zoning for patients attending for outpatient & inpatient care and visitors.
2. Management Pathway of patient attending for renal transplant from live and deceased donors.
3. COVID specific advice for transplant recipients and live donors.
4. Post-transplant follow-up using Face 2 Face & virtual clinics.

Kidney transplantation from a suitable live donor offers significantly better outcome and, helps to plan the procedure. Therefore, please advice any willing live donor to contact their local team to pursue investigations in a timely manner.

Sharing one’s experience is one of the best ways to assure everyone waiting either to donate a kidney or to undergo renal transplant is to learn the experience of patients who underwent the procedures and we are grateful for Francis (recipient) and Joe (Live kidney donor) willingness to share their experience of having renal transplant in the recent weeks (below).

We the clinical teams require support from our patients and their families to continue to deliver the renal transplantation and face any potential future challenges in the time ahead.