THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) is going to the expense of sending kidney dialysis patients by taxi from the midlands to Dublin several times a week rather than employing extra nurses required to deliver the service locally, it was claimed yesterday.
Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, said a number of new kidney dialysis stations at Tullamore General Hospital were lying idle because the HSE will not employ the nurses required to run it.
"It's ridiculous what's going on there because the equipment is there, everything is ready to go, all you need to do is decide to employ staff," he said.
"These people are getting dialysed in Dublin at the cost of driving them there and back every day.
"The taxi drivers are doing very well. We don't need taxi drivers, we need nurses in dialysis units locally . . . it's a classic waste of resources," he added.
While the new dialysis stations lie idle, some 25 patients are being ferried to Dublin by taxi for dialysis from the midlands up to three times a week, Mr Murphy said.
Furthermore, he said, if dialysis units in Letterkenny, Sligo, Castlebar, Galway, Kerry and Cavan took on more staff to do an extra dialysis shift a day, patients in their catchment areas wouldn't have to travel long distances for dialysis.
His comments came at the launch in Dublin of Organ Donor Awareness Week, which begins on Saturday.
Some 214 people benefited from organ transplantation in the State last year thanks to the generosity of 88 deceased donors. Seven of them were non-Irish, reflecting our multicultural society, Mr Murphy said.
Edward Kehoe, from Castlebridge, in Wexford, who received a kidney transplant 25 years ago yesterday and has been able to live a full and active life as a result, urged people to carry organ donor cards.
So too did 17-year-old Seán O'Gorman, a Leaving Cert student from Cahir, Co Tipperary, who received a heart transplant in February last year after 16 days on a life-support machine. "It's vital for everyone to have an organ donor card. I wouldn't be here now only for someone had an organ donor card," he said.
There are currently more than 600 patients in the State awaiting organ transplants. Some can be waiting years.
The HSE said it was considering proposals to open the idle dialysis stations at Tullamore hospital. It said "a decision will be made shortly".