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  • Kidney transplantation is very cost-effective, particularly in relation to NHS spend 1, and is the treatment of choice for many patients with end-stage renal failure.
  • Kidney transplantation is very cost-effective, particularly in relation to NHS spend 1, and is the treatment of choice for many patients with end-stage renal failure.
  • The indicative cost of maintaining a patient with end-stage renal failure on renal replacement therapy (dialysis) is £17,500 per patient per year for a patient on peritoneal dialysis and £35,000 per patient per year for a patient on hospital haemodialysis.2
  • There are over 37,800 patients with end-stage renal failure in the UK. Nearly 21,000 are on dialysis, whilst the remainder have a transplant. Of those on dialysis, 76% are on haemodialysis and 24% on peritoneal dialysis.3
  • The average cost of dialysis is £30,800 per patient per year.4
  • 3% of the NHS budget is spent on kidney failure services.
  • The indicative cost of a kidney transplant (including induction therapy but excluding UK Transplant costs) is £17,000 per patient per transplant.5
  • The immunosuppression required by a patient with a transplant costs £5,000 per patient per year.6
  • Kidney transplantation leads to a cost benefit in the second and subsequent years of £25,800 pa.
  • The cost benefit of kidney transplantation compared to dialysis over a period of ten years (the median graft survival time) 7 is £241,000 or £24,100 per year for each year that the patient has a functioning transplanted kidney.
  • In 2005-06, 1,914 people received a kidney transplant.8 These transplants are now saving the NHS £46.1m in dialysis costs each year for every year that the kidney functions.
  • In 2005-06, 131 more kidney transplants were provided than in the previous year. These transplants are now saving the NHS £3.2m every year until graft failure.9
  • In 2005-06 UK Transplant recorded over 19,000 people in the United Kingdom with a functioning kidney transplant.10 In this year, these patients will save the NHS over £490m in the dialysis costs that they would need if they did not have a functioning kidney transplant.
  • On 1 January 2007 there were 6200 patients waiting for a transplant on dialysis, costing around £190m per year. If all of these patients received a transplant, the approximate cost would be £40m per year 11, which represents a saving to the NHS of £150m per year.

References and notes: many figures are approximate. In particular, data on the costs of dialysis, transplantation and immunosuppression can differ quite markedly between patients.

  1. Economic evaluation of end-stage renal disease treatment. G Ardine de Wit, P Ramsteijn and F de Charro, Health Policy 44, 1998, pp215-232.
  2. UK Renal Registry.
  3. UK Renal Registry, Eighth Annual Report December 2005.
  4. A weighted average of the cost of dialysis based on 76% of patients receiving haemodialysis.
  5. Estimated tariff for renal transplantion in England.
  6. Based on NICE assessment of the clinical and cost effectiveness of home and hospital haemodialysis for patients with end stage renal failure, 2004.
  7. UK Transplant, based on adult cadaveric kidney-only graft recipients of transplants carried out in 1992-1994.
  8. UK Transplant, Activity Report 2005-2006.
  9. UK Transplant.
  10. UK Transplant, based on number of patients in the UK with a functioning kidney transplant, who have not been lost to follow-up or have died, and whose last assessment date was after January 2005.
  11. Based on the cost of a transplant and ten years of immunosuppression, averaged over ten years.

You can find out more about joining the NHS ODR by ringing 0845 60 60 400 or visiting our website www.uktransplant.org.uk

Last updated January 2007

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