The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE launch of the Ministry of Health and Wellness’s organ transplant programme has been pushed to begin operations next year, as the ministry is in the process of drafting legislation, finalising facilities and training health professionals, according Health officials.

Collin Higgs, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, said that although the Bahamas National Organs Transplant Programme was scheduled to be launched by the end of this year, the rigorous preparations needed have resulted in the launch being pushed to a later date.

“We are in the process of finalising facilities for the unit to be set up and we also have three nurses that were sent to England for training. Also we are drafting legislation related to transplant procedures,” Mr Higgs told The Tribune on Saturday.

Although Mr Higgs was unable to confirm whether the nurses being trained had returned as yet, he said they were trained through a three or four-week programme on how to care for patients who have undergone organ transplant procedures.

“We have identified persons that we want in the unit itself and we’re just waiting for the finalisation and preparation for everything to be in place, particularly the theatre, to launch the programme.

“I don’t think that we will meet the timeline that we had set to have the first transplant done before the end of the year. I think it will be early in the new year. So within the first quarter of the new year, we should have our first patient transplanted.

We’re only doing kidney transplants from living donors, not from cadavers or people that leave their organs,” Mr Higgs said.

In June, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the government expected to launch the Bahamas National Organ Transplant Programme before the end of this year.

During his Budget contribution on June 20, he said as officials determine what is required to execute and sustain the programme, kidney transplants from live donors to improve the quality of life for haemodialysis patients will be the first performed through the programme.

This initiative is expected to reduce the ministry’s cost for the current public haemodialysis programme where more than 600 public patients receive treatment,” Dr Darville said.

“We have also collaborated with partners in Cuba for guidance on the implementation of such a programme and expect to launch this programme before the end of this year.”