Tree Top Hospital is ready to start kidney transplant services with full facilities.

Tree Top has been working to introduce the service but was delayed due to legal challenges.

Kidney transplants will be performed by visiting urologists, Tree Top Medical Director Transplant Nephrologist Dr. Mladen Knotek, Dr. Jaya Nath and ICU doctors.

Dr. Knotek told Adhadhu that this service is not easy to provide and that patients have to be monitored for a long time after a kidney transplant.

"Many of the medicines needed for this are not always available in Maldives. It is very important that all the medicines are always available at the hospital," he said.

He said that proper regulations are needed to ensure that transplants are done in a transparent manner and this would prevent the sale of organs.

However, he stressed the importance of allowing organ donation when a regulation is made for kidney transplant service.

Dr. Knotek estimates that about 50 people in Maldives need kidney transplants every year and many people seek treatment from Tree Top every month for kidney disease.

He noted that symptoms of kidney disease appear after the condition worsens and that it is crucial to test if there are family members affected by kidney disease.

"If the disease is discovered after symptoms begin to appear, sometimes it is too late. So people with high blood pressure, diabetes and family history of diabetes, family history of kidney disease, family history of kidney stones and urine problems should be tested annually," Dr. Knotek stressed.

Tree Top has not yet decided on the price for the transplant service. Dr. Knotek said the procedure is expensive and it would be a great relief for Maldivians to have access through Aasandha health insurance scheme or the National Social Protection Agency (NSPA).

However, he noted that the price charged by Tree Top would be much cheaper than the cost of doing kidney transplants overseas.