Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the provision in NHS hospitals of kidney transplantation through keyhole surgery.
The removal of a kidney for donation from a living donor is routinely carried out using minimally invasive surgical techniques. In most transplant centres, these are keyhole (laparoscopic) techniques.
The use of keyhole surgery in the implantation of a kidney will be a clinical decision made in the best interests of the patient based on individual circumstances.