Listen
Human organ donation
16/01/2008
The Organ Donation Task Force's report 'Organs for Transplant', was published today, setting a new target of increasing the number of donors by 50 per cent over the next five years.
The report contains a raft of recommendations for improving organ donation rates in Scotland, as well as the rest of the UK.
These include:
- A UK wide organ donation organisation should be established
- A UK-wide network of Organ Retrieval Teams should be set up to ensure timely retrieval of organs
- The current network of donor transplant co-ordinators should be expanded
- All parts of the NHS must embrace organ donation as a usual, not unusual event. Local policies must be put in place and all clinical and nursing staff likely to be involved in organ donation should receive training
A separate piece of work is still being carried out on a UK-wide basis to look at the issue of presumed consent.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:
"I welcome today's report from the taskforce and can confirm that Scotland is fully committed to implementing its recommendations.
"The shortage of donor organs for transplantation is an increasingly acute problem and we are determined to tackle this.
"I want everyone to seriously consider signing up to the register and for this important issue to become widely discussed.
"This is an issue that many people already give serious consideration to and it's impressive that more Scots have put their names on the Organ Donor Register than in any other part of the UK.
"Despite this, Scotland still has one of the lowest organ donation rates in the EU and it's clear that we need to do much more to increase the number of donors. That is why I have asked the Scottish Transplant Group to take forward implementation of the recommendations in Scotland.
"Although today's report does not deal with the issue of presumed consent, I want to repeat that I am sympathetic towards the idea of introducing a system of presumed consent and I welcome the fact that the task force is considering the risks and benefits of this approach.
"Making the decision to become an organ donor can save lives and we are encouraging everyone to make the personal commitment to sign up to the organ donor register. "
John Forsythe, chairman of the Scottish Transplant Group and a transplant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, said:
"I am delighted that the recommendations from the Organ Donation Task Force have received widespread approval.
"In the last few months, in our unit, quite a large number of patients have deteriorated and died whilst waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Indeed approximately 1000 patients across the UK either die whilst waiting for a transplant or are removed from the waiting lists because they are too sick.
"The recommendations from the Task Force and the resource made available to back these recommendations, are highly likely to make a huge difference to this situation."
The Organ Donation Taskforce was established to identify barriers to donation and recommend what action needs to be taken to increase organ donation within the current legal framework.
Each of the UK Health Departments is represented on the Task Force, in recognition of the UK-wide nature of organ donation and transplantation arrangements.
There are currently 700 people in Scotland awaiting an organ transplant.
The law on organ donation was strengthened in 2006 with the passing of the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act , which gave legal status to a person's wishes, ensuring they are carried out after their death.