Transplantation
My self-image and my reality no longer match. My health is currently the best it’s been in many years, but I’ve also never been so at risk. Every realisation of “I can’t do that anymore.” is a reminder that even though my illness is invisible, it will never be completely absent.
Transplant recipient, UK
…after a 10 week break many things about our ways of working have changed. In some ways all the QI I have done has been swept away and I am back to 2017; then again we have been accelerated into a virtual era that would otherwise have taken years to develop.
Transplant surgeon, UK
How did units manage their transplant services during COVID-19?
What communication were patients given?
Could you look after existing transplant patients safely?
Were potential transplant recipients and donors still able to be prepared for transplantation? How was this managed / experienced?
How are teams rebuilding and re-starting transplantation safely?
What are the good and bad features of the “new normal” and how have you adapted your pathways?
Many transplant centres stopped performing kidney transplants during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had a massive impact on patients, as well as a knock-on effect on other parts of the kidney care pathway.
Some transplant staff were redeployed to different specialties or roles, impacting on their capacity to prepare patients for transplantation, and many living donor events were cancelled.
Deceased organ donation and transplant activity is now recovering to pre-COVID levels and all transplant centres have now reopened, however transplant centres and renal units are having to develop new ways of working in order to make transplantation safe.
Do you have experience of managing transplant services during COVID-19 ? Add your voice to this learning community! Be it a personal reflection, an innovation you are proud of or something you have learnt, get in touch by completing this short and easy form, or email your story in your own words to kquip@renalregistry.nhs.uk.
Shared learning
- Learning from one transplant unit’s transformation in response to COVID-19
University Hospitals Birmingham - Restarting vascular access and transplantation
Review of London kidney teams’ response to COVID-19