There has been a total of 40 successful kidney transplants since the launch of the national tissue programme, says Leader of Government Business Colm Imbert.

In response to a question on the Order Paper from Opposition MP Hamza Rafeeq at the Parliament sitting yesterday, Imbert, on behalf of Health Minister Jerry Narace, said the Ministry of Health was developing a comprehensive plan to further enhance public awareness and to strengthen the capacity of the national organ tissue bank to increase the donation of organs.

Questioned on the number of persons in need of renal chemo dialysis, Imbert said the National Organ Transplant Unit had indicated that due to the lack of a national registry system, the number of persons cannot be accurately determined.

Imbert said the Health Ministry is organising a patient management system which will register patients who need dialysis and those in need of a donor.

He said in the second phase of the plan, in 2009, dialysis centres will be given the capability to register high risk dialysis patients from different health institutions into one centrally managed registry management system.

Imbert added that as of May this year, a total of 577 patients received renal chemo dialysis at 15 centres in this country, a 32 per cent increase from last year.