Plea for more staff to sustain kidney transplant programme

The lack of facilities and staff is the major challenge this tertiary care hospital catering to a large catchment area is facing, the Sunday Times understands.

Ishika’s transplant was done on the night of April 5 (Friday) with both donor and recipient being opened up simultaneously in two operating theatres to cut down the time required for the surgeries. This transplant was done at 8 p.m., after duty hours of the staff, and also after the routine surgical list of the day was completed, it is learnt.

It was the first living donor kidney transplant at the Ragama Hospital, while two weeks before that Dr. Aruna Weerasuriya had performed a transplant with a kidney from a deceased (cadaveric) donor.

The call going out is for more staff to sustain this transplant programme as there is a severe dearth of Medical Officers, while the team could also do with more nurses and minor staff. With the new theatre complex coming up, manpower is the need of the hour. When asked about prevalence, Dr. Nalaka Herath says that although there is no Registry on Renal Failure patients, about 5-10% of Sri Lanka’s population may be hit by kidney disease, with of course, a regional difference from area to area.

With a non-communicable disease (NCD) including diabetes epidemic gripping the country, in some areas Chronic Kidney Disease prevalence may be closer to the 10% mark, according to him. This is while Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) has a high prevalence in the North Central, North Western and Uva Provinces.