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Transplant crisis at Christie Hospital

4/12/2003

CHRISTIE hospital is sending bone-marrow patients in need of life-saving transplants to other hospitals due a shortage of consultants.

It is estimated that nearly three in ten patients have been forced to use other hospitals around the north west and beyond, including ones as far away as London and Leeds.

The shortage has cost Christies £1 million because of lost revenue from the NHS but the hospital advised it will not carry out the transplants with insufficent staff.

Every time the hospital conducts a transplant it receives £70,000 from the NHS. Christies is now losing that money as well as having to pay other hospitals to care for its patients.

The shortage was caused when one of the three doctors that specalises in bone marrow transplants left the hospital in June to pursue another career. The hospital have been unable to find a replacement since due to a national shortage in the number of doctors trained in the highly specialised area.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: "We are currently undertaking a reduced number of bone marrow transplants and this is due to a current shortage of senior medical staff. Due to this current reduction we are not prepared to take any risks concerning the high quality of care required for these patients.

"Patients who are having transplants from their own bone marrow, newly diagnosed leukemia patients and those with other blood-related cancers are still being treated at the hospital. It is only those who require transplants from other donors that are affected by the shortage."

The hospital had already created a budget for this financial year and now to make ends meet 16 beds have been closed and staff and drugs budgets have been cut to break even. If the trust doesn't balance the books by March it will lose its two-star rating, which means missing out on crucial government cash.

Christies is holding interviews for the vacant position this month.