Organ Donation: Public Awareness Is Key To Success

Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Article Date: 18 Nov 2008 - 8:00 PST

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NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) welcomes the Government's call for more people across the country to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register. This call from Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, came in response to publication today of the Organ Donation Taskforce report recommending that an opt-out system for organ donation should not be introduced in the UK at this time.

The Taskforce concludes instead that full implementation of the major changes outlined in its first report in January 2008 can deliver a 50% increase in organ donor numbers by 2013. Work already underway on these changes - delivered by NHSBT, hospital trusts, the Department of Health and devolved administrations - includes:

- The creation of a UK-wide network of Donor Transplant Co-ordinators (DTCs). These are the specialist healthcare professionals who liaise with bereaved families to explain organ donation and ensure that donors' wishes are respected. The first two teams of existing DTCs are already on board, with plans for two more to be in place by March 2009 and recruitment of new DTCs underway which will ultimately more than double their total number to 250.

- Close collaboration with hospital trusts to appoint clinical donation champions and donation committees to make organ donation a usual event across the country. A first tier of 50 hospital trusts either already have these arrangements in place, such as Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, or are currently recruiting.

- Commissioning a network of dedicated organ retrieval teams across the country to ensure timely, high-quality organ removal.

- Running a sustained, high-profile public campaign to raise awareness and understanding about organ donation.

In the 10 months since the publication of the first Organ Donation Taskforce report, almost 1 million names have already been added to the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Over the next two years, NHSBT will roll out a high-profile campaign to raise awareness of organ donation. In order to help shape this campaign, NHSBT is asking members of the public to take part in a short online survey at http://www.uktransplant.org.uk. In the build-up to the campaign, this initial survey will test people's motivations in joining the NHS Organ Donor Register and, crucially, current barriers to doing so.

The need to address prevalent misconceptions about organ donation will be an important factor in the campaign. These include the common (but incorrect) belief that older people can't be organ donors. Education in schools about all types of donation - of organs, blood, bone marrow and tissues - is also integral to encouraging the donors of the future. NHSBT has recently issued a substantially revised version of its educational programme - "Give and Let Live" - to secondary schools across the country.

Lynda Hamlyn, Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "With nearly 16 million people registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register, there is no question about the level of altruism among the general public. We see this day after day with people whose generosity in donating organs and blood enables many lives to be saved and improved every year.

"Nevertheless, there remains an urgent need to address the gap between the number of people waiting for an organ transplant and those receiving one. The Government's public commitment to organ donation and support for the necessary changes underway has marked a watershed in our ability to marshal the necessary resources behind the much-needed increase in rates of organ donation and transplantation in the UK."

The latest Organ Donation Taskforce Report is available via the following link: http://www.dh.gov.uk/organdonationtaskforce

Notes

1. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is a Special Health Authority in the NHS. It is the organ donor organisation for the UK and is responsible for matching and allocating donated organs.

2. The NHS Organ Donor Register is a confidential database used to identify those who have registered and indicated that they wish to be organ and/or tissue donors in the event of their death. It can be accessed by authorised medical staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week to establish an individual wishes on donation.

There are currently almost 16 million people (26% of the UK population) on the NHS Organ Donor Register - two years before the target date of 2010 set by Alan Milburn in 2001, when the ODR held 8 million names.

3. Almost a million people have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register since January 2008, when the first report of the Organ Donation Taskforce - "Organs for Transplants" - was published. The report is available at http://www.dh.gov.uk

4. You are more likely to need a transplant than become a donor.

5. Despite the thousands of life-saving transplant operations that take place each year, almost 8,000 people are registered for a transplant, of whom about 1,000 will die while waiting.

6. Last year, 3,237 people received the gift of life through organ donation, while a further 2,489 had their sight restored through a cornea transplant. So far this year (1st April to date), deceased organ donation is up by 14% compared to the same period last year, equating to an extra 165 transplants.

7. The Human Tissue Act 2004 makes clear that the wishes of the deceased must be put first. Where a person has expressed a wish to donate by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register, carrying a donor card or verbally or in writing to a family member or friend, NHS staff will do all they can to ensure those wishes are fulfilled.

UK Transplant