Townsville Hospital kidney transplant unit clears another hurdle

Townsville is one step closer to becoming the only regional QLD hospital capable of transplanting kidneys. See how it could alleviate the financial, emotional stress for patients forced to travel south.

(L-R) Townsville Hospital and Health Service planning director Billy Bragg, North Queensland kidney transplant lead Dr Michelle Harfield and organ recipient Susie Anderson.

When it comes to taxpayer dollars, performing kidney transplants is cheaper than keeping patients on dialysis.

But right now, only one Queensland hospital transplants the vital organ - and it’s all the way in Brisbane.

This is a real problem for North Queensland, which has the most dialysis patients but the least kidney recipients in the state.

Thankfully, a Townsville-based kidney transplant unit has been inching through the pipeline since mid-2021 and on January 6, things took a big leap forward.

On Friday the Townsville Hospital and Health Service (THHS) submitted a detailed business plan to the Department of Health.

Dialysis patient and advocate Steven Lee hooked up to a dialysis machine in Toowoomba. The machine filters a patient’s blood (2021) Picture: Nev Madsen.

THHS planning director Billy Bragg said once the Department of Health gives the green light to the business plan, he expects kidneys will be going into North Queensland patients within 18 months.

“Hopefully we’re looking at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025,” Mr Bragg said.

Dialysis units are the closest thing we have to an ‘artificial kidney’.

“Of course it has to get approval and go through the budget cycle.”

The THHS will work with DonateLife to receive kidneys from organ donors across Australia.

Right now the waitlist for a kidney can be anywhere from one to six years depending on your blood type and donation rates.

Eight years ago Wulguru woman Susie Anderson flew to Brisbane to receive her new kidney, spending three months in accommodation and taking 20 minute taxi rides to Princess Alexandra Hospital every morning.

She said the financial burden was large, but the stress of being separated from family was even larger.

“I had to go to Brisbane, which I wasn’t familiar with. I got on a plane for the first time in my life,” Mrs Anderson said.

Michelle Harfield (left) and Susie Anderson (right), who lived with failing kidneys until she was 45 and needed to go on dialysis.

“But I recommend getting the transplant. It gave me such a boost of energy, it hits you all at once and I was out of the hospital bed that day … it beats going to hospital three times a week, getting huge needles put into your arm for three to five hours and being so tired.”

Mrs Anderson’s new kidney lasted five years before it failed - she used that time to travel and raised her children.

The mother-to-two inherited polycystic kidney disease from her own mother, and knew by 21 her kidneys were failing.

“There is no cure,” Mrs Anderson said.

“I have one child who has polycystic kidney disease too... I really hope one day they create an artificial kidney.”

Originally published as Townsville Hospital kidney transplant unit clears another hurdle