Port Moresby doctor leads push for life-saving kidney transplants in PNG

Kidney specialists are pushing for a law to be passed in parliament to allow for kidney transplants to be practiced in PNG, due to the increased number of patients dying from kidney failure every day.

Kidney transplant is considered the best treatment option for kidney failure patients in Papua New Guinea.

It offers a near-normal lifestyle and is the main treatment practiced worldwide.

In contrast, while haemodialysis treatment helps keep a patient alive for as long as they’re on long-term treatment, it is very costly.

Port Moresby General Hospital nephrologist Dr Stephen Bogosia is the deputy chairperson of the hospital's Kidney Transplant Project Steering Committee and has years of experience taking care of kidney patients on dialysis.

He says haemodialysis is very expensive, meaning many families are not able to afford to care for their sick relative.

Usually, the sick person is the family provider, and having to receive weekly dialysis means they are not attending work and eventually lose their jobs.

Dr Bogosia says everywhere else in the world, kidney transplants are practised more as a treatment, and he would like to see this happening in Papua New Guinea.

"Kidney transplants not only provides help for you to be alive, but it also returns you to your normal body levels where you don't feel sick anymore and you can return to work," he said.

"You're on medication for life but you're almost normal and that's the beauty of transplant."

Doctor Bogosia says local surgeons and specialists are more than able to carry out kidney transplants and only need the "transplant law" to be passed in parliament to allow the treatment process to be practised in the country.

"The Marape government is aimed at sorting this out," he said.

"This is not about whether the law should come first, the patient life demands for this service, and as doctors this must be provided."

Doctor Bogosia says negotiations are underway with the government to have parliament pass the law next year.

"If this law is not passed quickly and if there is a need to pay for legal bills to take the law through the courts, it will be done," he said.

"Already, money is being put towards this by the Kidney Transplant Project Steering Committee."