Organ Donation

A unique programme to support a UK-wide network of hospital organ donation “champions” is to be launched next week.

The programme is designed for the growing number of Clinical Leads for Organ Donation and the Donation Committee Chairs who work along side them. These people have been appointed to key roles in hospitals to implement recommendations made by the Organ Donation Taskforce and help increase donation rates by 50% over a five-year period.

Presently 170 clinical leads throughout the UK dedicate time every week to working with colleagues in intensive care units and emergency medicine departments to encourage organ donation to be viewed as part of normal, every day practice in hospitals.

There are also currently 100 donation committees in place with responsibility to champion organ donation in general within hospitals. Eventually there will be a total of 194 Clinical Leads and 184 donation committees based in acute hospitals across the UK.

Leadership within frontline NHS services was identified by the Taskforce as a major catalyst in making organ donation usual rather than unusual. The programme has been developed in collaboration with the medical colleges and is supported by UK Government Health Departments.

Commenting on this new development, Medical Director NHS England Sir Bruce Keogh said: “This exciting, innovative programme will not only give you skills to increase organ donation in your hospital but will support leadership to the benefit of the whole NHS.”

Health Minister Ann Keen said, “This programme is yet another important step in our journey to increase organ donation - by providing support and training for those involved in organ donation in the NHS, leadership in this vital field is improved. We have already seen a rise in the number of people on the Organ Donor Register as well as the number of donations made - as a nurse, I know that initiatives such as this are so important to making sure this upward trend continues. ”

Dr Paul Murphy, an Intensive Care Consultant in Leeds and NHSBT’s National Clinical Lead for Organ Donation said: “All the international evidence points towards the need to support and train those who care for potential organs donors. This programme will, in an exciting and innovative way, deliver just that.

‘It will take participants’ knowledge of organ donation to an advanced level, and just as importantly, will offer the developmental opportunities that are necessary for staff to become effective leaders in their hospitals and implement the real change that is needed if we are to raise rates of organ donation in the UK. The design of the programme will also establish a network of regional donation collaboratives in which clinicians involved in donation and transplantation will come together to s hare experience and best practice.

‘This programme represents a landmark moment in the implementation of the recommendations from the Organ Donation Taskforce, and is a historic opportunity to increase rates of organ donation in the UK.”

Funded by NHSBT, the twelve month programme will involve face to face workshops, self-study and regional events aimed at building leadership and change management skills, and to advance clinical expertise and capability.

Guest speaker at the inaugural event in London on 1 st and 2nd February is author and organ donation campaigner, Reg Green, whose seven year old son Nicholas's organs and corneas were donated after he was shot during an armed robbery while on a family holiday in Italy in 1994. The decision, by Reg and his wife, Maggie, saved the lives of five Italians, four of them teenagers, and restored the sight of two others.

Reg Green said: “Losing Nicholas was the worst thing that has ever happened to us. but there is some comfort knowing that he saved all those other families from a lifetime of sorrow. Better still organ donation rates in Italy have more than quadrupled since then so thousands of people are alive who would have died.

"It's vital that hospital staff recognise the importance of offering donation. Every day three people on the waiting list die, because of the shortage of donated organs.”

The Clinical Leads, who are mainly intensive care consultants, are supported in their work by Donor Transplant Co-ordinators, more than half of whom are now resident in hospitals. Together they work to streamline the referral of potential donors to help make sure that more people have their decision to donate fulfilled and more lives are saved through transplantation.

With 10,000 people in the UK in need of an organ transplant, this programme is a vital part of the ongoing plans to help to improve deceased donation rates and provide more lifesaving transplants.

Ends

If you believe in organ donation, prove it

Register now at organdonation.nhs.uk or call 0300 123 23 23

• For additional information please contact NHSBT press office on 0117 969 2444 or pressoffice@nhsbt.nhs.uk
• For out of hours enquiries please call: 07659 133583.

Notes to editors

• NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is a Special Health Authority in the NHS. It is the organ donation organisation for the UK, with responsibility for matching and allocating donated organs. Its remit also includes the provision of a safe, sufficient supply of blood and associated services to the NHS.
• The NHS Organ Donor Register records the details of people who have registered their wishes to donate organs and/or tissue after their death for transplantation. This information is checked after someone has died by authorised medical staff to establish whether a person wanted to donate.
• It’s simple to join the ODR by:
  • going to www.organdonation.nhs.uk
  • ringing 0300 123 23 23, or
  • texting SAVE to 84118 (check with Campaigns as they have different commands for different things)
• Anyone can register on the ODR. Age isn’t a barrier to being an organ or tissue donor and neither are most medical conditions. People in their 70s and 80s have become organ donors and saved many lives. The oldest recorded cornea donor was 102.
• One donor can save or transform up to 9 lives and many more can be helped through the donation of tissues.
• There are currently 7994 people in the UK on the active waiting list for an organ transplant. This figure changes constantly as people join and leave the transplant list. A further 2550 people are on the suspended list because they are too ill or unable to receive a transplant at present. This brings the current total needing an organ transplant in the UK to 10544
• Last year (2008/09), 3,513 organ transplants were carried out in the UK, thanks to the generosity of 1,853 deceased and living donors – the highest on record.