Can I come to UK for transplant?

[Devumair]

I am 23 and I am on dialysis from two years. I have been recommended kidney & liver transplant. Unfortunately from where i am doctors are not doing the transplant from out family donor. My younger has the same gene mutation so he is rejected for donating but my friends want to donate. I have seen UK's NHS is one of the best healthcare system ever. Can I come to UK for transplant? I mean would they give visa on medical basis and can NHS be free for a person like me?

[GeordieJanice]

Hi, I'm British and work for the NHS here in the UK. I also have stage 5 kidney disease and I am currently going through assessment for a kidney transplant. I'm afraid you will not get a visa to enter and stay in the UK in the hope of getting a kidney transplant and you are not entitled to NHS healthcare in the UK anyway and private (fee paying) kidney transplants are illegal here. Even if you were entitled to NHS care you would have to be living in the UK while you wait for a suitable kidney as you would not be allowed on to the waiting list if you were not a resident here. The average wait for me with my ethnicity, tissue type & blood group is around 5 years but for Asians I believe it is much, much longer. Please remember in the UK the Asian community is very small and very, very few Asians donate kidneys so you would probably have to wait an extremely long time for a suitable match to come up. I know some Asians on my dialysis ward have already been waiting for 15 years. Also, when deciding who gets a kidney they will take into account how long someone has been waiting so anyone who has been waiting longer than you will take priority. Please do not even consider trying to come over in the hope you will be able to get into the system or somehow cheat it! Any hospital you approach will insist on you showing either a UK passport or a passport with a valid relevant visa and you will also have to prove you are working in the UK by showing your payslips. This is to ensure you can cover all costs if they find out at a later stage you were not entitled to NHS care (they will send you a bill). Even though I'm a British citizen with a UK passport and have been registered with the NHS since birth (1965) I still had to provide my passport and payslips a few months ago before my local hospital would allow me to see anyone from the renal department! Interestingly here in the UK people are traveling overseas to countries like Pakistan to pay for private kidney transplants because of the very long wait times here. Because of 2 years of covid all transplant operations were stopped for a long time so the waiting list is very, very long now. So British people who can afford it are paying for trandplants overseas. You may wish to explore the USA as all their healthcare is private and it may be legal for you to pay for a transplant there. Good luck on your transplant journey.

[richsemc]

My wife has kidney problem and dialysis which has now been stopped on her, the uk hospitals are totally disfunctional at the moment with the virus and even small operations are not being done, waited 2 years for skin cancer treatment and angiplasty on leg and i will probably be on waiting list for another two years.