Kidney transplantation for First Nations Australians: from ‘These sorts of people don’t do very well’ to ‘Hunting Transplants’ and ‘Return to Country’

Patient precentors Peter Henwood, Neil Wilkshire and
David Croker from Purple House in the Northern Territory
gave first hand accounts of the education process. Video

by Dr Angela Burge, CCS GEDI committee

On Fri 8 July, Professor Paul Lawton shared his valuable insights as part of the NAIDOC week Central Clinical School Seminar Series. We were fortunate that he was able to be joined by a First Nation Peoples panel, with extra special thanks to Peter Henwood, David Croker and Neil Wilkshire from Purple House direct from the Northern Territory (NT), who provided a firsthand perspective on the challenges and opportunities that the health system faces in providing adequate care to the huge number of Australians affected by kidney disease. See CCS GEDI web page for video.

Importantly, the significant lack of parity between renal transplants in indigenous renal patients, dramatically reducing their survival rates in the NT, was highlighted as a critical national healthcare issues that needs to be immediately addressed.