Bed capacity crisis results in organs being shipped to UK – Beaumont docs

Beaumont doctors say the “travesty” of sending three organs to the UK was a result of bed shortages. Beaumont Hospital says the problem is not bed capacity per se, but a temporary reconfiguration of beds at the transplant unit as a result of building works.
The story, as the Irish Times has reported, is this:

On January 26th last, four kidneys and one pancreas became available for transplant. Two of the kidneys were used for paediatric transplants in Temple Street Children’s Hospital while the remaining organs were sent to the UK Transplant Service despite long waiting lists in the Republic.

Dr David Hickey, the consultant surgeon who made the decision to send the organs abroad said: “My colleagues and I met on the topic and decided that we could not safely bend our standards and we had to send the kidneys abroad. We need a significant increase in the number of beds.”
The hospital rejected the implication that this was a bed capacity issue “per se.” Instead, building works had created a temporary shortage.
“This means that the beds used for patients immediately post operatively are currently in a different location to the main ward to ensure their safety and that has issues for provision of nursing by the highly trained specialist staff,” the hospital said in a statement.
From the Irish Times: “There are 580 patients currently awaiting kidney transplant and 25 awaiting a pancreas. The average waiting time for a kidney is just under three years and the average waiting time for a pancreas is nine months.”