While the hospital is reluctant to give out the figures, there are people in Bermuda who cannot get on the waiting list for a liver transplant because they don’t have the financial means.

Only those with major medical insurance qualify for organ transplants in Bermuda. If you are on the Government Hospital Insurance Plan, you are not covered.

There are about 80 people on dialysis in Bermuda at the moment but only 25 are on transplant waiting lists.

Renal Transplant Coordinator Marianne Herbert revealed that most of those who are not on the list have other medical complications.

“A lot of the people have coexisting diseases which complicate transplants because of the side effects of the anti-rejection medications,” she said.

Ms Herbert said that in many cases the medication would worsen the other diseases from which the patient is suffering.

She said other people not on the list simply don’t want a transplant — “especially a lot of the older people.”

A few, she said, are ineligible to be listed because they do not have major medical insurance.

“I hope in time we will have a change in legislation so that more people will be able to get transplants,” she said.