Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has clarified it won't remove unvaccinated patients from its kidney transplant waiting list.
A letter from senior doctors at the hospital recommended anyone who had not got a Covid jab shouldn't receive a transplant.
In a statement, it now says no patient, vaccinated or not, would be removed from the list.
Carol Moore, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, says the clarification is welcome.
Ms Moore told Newstalk: “It's hard on doctors when they're losing patients and a lot of the time they're trying to make decisions under extreme pressure, there's a huge waiting list for people to have transplants surgery, and we would never agree with patients being taken off the transplant list because they haven't agreed to a medical procedure, it should always be patient choice as to whether they undergo medical procedures.”
A statement from the hospital on Friday said people who cannot comply with protective measures, which includes vaccination, will remain “active” on the transplant programme, however, their procedure may be deferred if a risk assessment deems the risk to be “too high at that time because of inability to engage with protective measures or for any other reason”.
The letter to consultants involved in the service, dated August 3rd, asked for a list of patients “who are on the transplant waiting list who are currently not vaccinated” to be supplied.
