Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Roni Gamzu told members of the Knesset Health Committee that 700 Israelis are waiting for an organ donor to have a kidney transplant. The professor cited that kidney disease if the fifth cause of death in Israel.
In 2010, 977,000 people were receiving dialysis as compared to 230,000 in the early 1990s.
The meeting of the committee addressed the serious shortage of nephrologists in Israel. Acting committee chair, Shas MK Avraham Michaeli called upon the Health Ministry to officially declare a shortage in nephrologists to permit launching efforts to encourage members of the medical community to become certified in this specialty.
Gamzu explained the ministry is on top of things and the main problem is not the shortage of nephrologists, but the lack of viable organs for transplant.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
It is not possible that 977000 (15% of the population) people were receiving Dialysis last year. It isn’t possible that these were the number of treatments last year. Each patient receives approx. 150 treatments a year. 150 x 700 patients = 105,000 treatments p.a.
In the past 2 year, one man has single handedly taken 80 people off the list. Rav Yeshayahu Heber from Har Nof has encouraged 80 people to donate kidneys to 80 sick people, as there is very very low risk to the donors & they save the sick person’s life. For those interested his site is: http://www.kilya.org.il