The kidney transplants performed in May were a success, and now the pacients’ situation is stable; nevertheless, they still remain under the supervision of the specialists from the National Clinical Hospital. “It is an important step. We will continue to occasionally perform transplant surgeries, and this year, for the first time in the Republic of Moldova, a liver transplant will be performed at the National Clinical Hospital”, Health Minister Andrei Usatii told Info-Prim Neo. The Minister has mentioned that the project of modernizing the National Clinical Hospital is in its ending phase. Transplants, not only of kidneys, but of liver and cornea as well, will be performed there. Andrei Usatii has explained that there will be no transplant-specialized center, but rather several departments specialized in different organs. “We are in the midst of training medical teams who will operate sophisticated medical equipment and modern technologies used in such surgeries. There are several countries that have allowed us to send our doctors to perfect their knowledge in their hospitals. At this moment there is a team of doctors under instruction at the Fundeni clinical hospital in Bucharest, also at Timisoara (Romania), as well as in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland”, the Minister stated. After a break of more than five years, two kidney transplants have been performed in Moldova. The surgeries took place on May 19 and 21, at the National Clinical Hospital, under the coordination of a Belgian professor. The patients were operated on the basis of their insurance, without any additional fees, the donors being the patients’ first degree relatives. According to data from the Ministry of Healthcare there are 900 people in the Republic of Moldova who need organ transplants, 250 of whom need a kidney transplant. The costs of an organ transplant surgery can rise up to 16,000 euros.