I've just read a couple of articles online on Sky News as well as The Age in Australia and I'm actually outraged!

It seems that only 18% of dialysis patients are even ON the waiting list for a new kidney in Australia due to either extremely outdated or unworkable and subjective guidelines. Apparently getting on the waiting list is subjective and depends on whether your Doctor thinks you'll have 80% chance of surviving 5 years following the transplant operation…

National eligibility rules were changed only last year, that's 2011, to restrict discrimination on grounds, especially around age. We live in the 21st century yet discrimination is everywhere..and I'm surprised that the Australian Health system hasn't been sued for discrimination of this issue by now.

Professor Pussell, a kidney specialist at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital who conducted this research basically stated that NOT adding patients to the waiting list was unethical as it has been found that ALL ages benefit and live longer when they received a transplant. He went on to say:

"We should not 'solve' this [shortage] by restricting referral or by processes of allocation that are fundamentally at odds with widely shared moral values. Choices are made in medicine all the time but bust be justified and inappropriate discrimination removed."

At least he's fighting our corner! Thankfully this study is published in the Internal Medicine Journal and is out there.

What do you think about this?

Were you told what medical conditions would preclude you from getting on the waiting list or getting a transplant?

Were you told CLEARLY what the criteria was for getting on and STAYING on the waiting list?

Sadly, the President of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand, Peter Macdonald stated that one possible reason for the decrease in people on the waiting list was the rise in living donation, whereby a family member or friend agreed to give a kidney. He said it would be wrong to put more people on the waiting list because there were not enough donors for the people already listed!

Really? But isn't this falsifying information/statistics. So in reality anyone reading these stats would see a much smaller problem when actually the problem of lack of kidney organs for transplantation is HUGE! And growing by the day.

And is there anyone that actually considers the patients?

I personally know several patients in NZ who have not been put on the waiting list. Reasons include weighing over 100 kgs (220lbs), having heart conditions, age. Ok I agree that some of these are valid. But how do justify removing someone from the waiting list if they're 101 kgs? How does this work with communities that are naturally bigger? Is Weight the best way to determine someone's eligibility? You can see where I'm going with this right?

One of the biggest issues for me is the lack of communication around what it takes to not only be put on the waiting list but also what the criteria ACTUALLY is for receiving a kidney for transplantation. It's all very vague here. I've heard differing accounts. Obviously you don't get a 'number in line' as such and apparently you gain points by being on the list longer (each month counts), age, of course the usual blood type, tissue type, cross match compatibility. I've been told that it's a computer algorith that matches kidneys with possible recipients.

I'm assuming that all the other factors are taken into consideration too?

How does it all really work?

Have you been informed?

Why do patients continue to be kept in the dark?

And if we're told we're not on the waiting list, don't we deserve an honest and clear answer why?

We all live in hope of receiving a kidney at some point. If we don't have hope then why do we continue to do this to ourselves?

Just saying..

If you're interested in reading the articles yourself, please see: http://www.skynews.com.au/health/article.aspx?id=739515&vId=

and:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/call-for-kidney-transplant-review-20120413-1wz12.html