A HAMPSHIRE man has hit out at Southampton's health authority for restricting the human rights of renal patients after he successfully donated a kidney to his ex-wife.

As reported in the Daily Echo last month, Brian Munson donated one of his kidneys to his former wife Linda who suffers from kidney failure.

But the 64-year-old, who is recovering at his home in Weston, Southampton, following a problem-free five-hour operation, believes Southampton Primary Care Trust is restricting renal patients' freedom of movement by refusing to pay for their treatment outside the European Union.

Retired Mr Munson, of Hawkley Green, said: "Renal patients really do get the worst deal.

"They cannot go outside the EU.

"A renal patient has got no freedom of choice or freedom of movement. They are denied the liberty of other citizens.

"The Patient's Charter says people have the right to receive health care on the basis of their clinical need, not on their ability to pay, lifestyle or any other factor.

"Dialysis can cost £250 a session and with three sessions a week no one can afford that."

Mr Munson recently underwent the successful operation to transfer one of his healthy kidneys to Linda, 53, at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Although they were married for 16 years the couple divorced five years ago but remained friends. Mr Munson became Linda's carer when she suffered kidney failure in April 2000 and he hopes the operation will give her a new lease of life.

Gordon Nicholas the chairman of the National Kidney Federation, which represents people who have suffered renal failure, said: "PCTs are not legally bound to pay for a patient to get into a renal unit anywhere in the world. We would like to see this changed."

A spokesman for Southampton PCT added: "Of course people on dialysis need holidays, so we do pay for holiday dialysis in the UK and government agreements cover people for holidays in the EU.

"But it's true that we don't pay for overseas voluntary treatment.

"We exist to provide the best healthcare possible for more than 200,000 people in Southampton, with a limited amount of taxpayers' money."