Transplant Issues
The Transplant Working Group has made considerable progress in strategies to reduce demand for dialysis services. It also provides advice to NSW Health on issues relating to quality of care, including access & equity and patient safety.
Living Related Donor Transplants
As part of recommended initiatives for renal services, the GMCT injected $2.3 million per annum to improve renal services. This has significantly increased rates of live donor kidney transplants. Higher availability of surgery time has substantially lowered patient waiting times. As a result, patients are ensured speedier access to renal transplant services.
ACI distributes funds to Transplant Units to supplement the additional cost of the surgery for living-related procedures. The graph below illustrates how a higher rate of living-related transplants has been maintained in recent years. The deceased-donor figures for NSW are also provided.
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Guidelines for Nutrition
Guidelines for the nutritional management of adult kidney transplant recipients were developed by a dietitian project officer under the guidance of a steering committee during 2006-2008. The guidelines have been published in the renal literature, and a set of leaflets has been developed, based on the guidelines, to assist dietitians to explain the nutritional requirements in their consultations with transplant recipients. This project was funded by a grant from GMCT, at the request of the Transplant Working Group.