Dialysis and transplantation were established at the Royal Free Hospital after Mr John Hopewell was appointed to set up urological services in 1957. The first haemodialysis was carried out for acute renal failure in 1958, and the first transplant attempted in 1959. This used mercaptopurine as immunosuppression, and was carried out by Mr Hopewell with his registrar Roy Calne, who had been working on the drug. A young man given a kidney from his father in 1961 survived for 7 weeks, but the early results of transplantation were depressing and led to the establishment of one of the earliest programmes for dialysis of patients with permanent renal failure, in 1963. Under Stanley Shaldon, who joined the group in 1960 as a registrar then Lecturer, the Royal Free set up the UK (and Europe's) first home haemodialysis patients in 1964. In 1966 the Royal Free appointed the UK's first NHS consultant nephrologist, John Moorhead. |
Renal Units in the UK
