Hospitals will be banned from using NHS organs in private transplant operations
The Government has agreed to take immediate steps to implement the recommendations of an independent reviewcarried out by Elisabeth Buggins, former chair of the Organ Donation Taskforce, to ban private organ transplants.
The review was carried out following media allegations that organs from NHS donors were being given to patients from countries such as Greece and Italy.
The enquiry discovered that 700 transplants, mostly liver transplants, had been carried out on non-UK patients over the past decade - 631 of those transplants used organs from dead donors and, of those, 314 were from outside the EU.
Elisabeth Buggins said the report aimed to make more organs available for UK residents, adding that,
"While I found no evidence of wrongdoing in the way organs are allocated to patients, there is a perception that private payments may unfairly influence access to transplant, so they must be banned."
It also recommended that rules should be tightened on which EU citizens are entitled to transplants on the NHS. Under EU law, some patients can receive treatment in other countries, if approved by their healthcare system, which then pays for the treatment. It is likely that there are patients currently receiving treatment who should be refused, and the NHS needs to be more cautious when checking eligibility under these rules.
The Report has been welcomed by the British Transplantation Society, who said it , would provide "further reassurance" that priority for a transplant was given to those in greatest need.
Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern, also supported the proposal, arguing that any suggestion of private payment seriously undermined the entire transplant programme,.
"Why should we sign up as organ donors if our organs can then be sold to the highest bidder? The law rightly prevents us from selling our own organs, so it is an outrage that hospitals can boost their income by doing so, while UK residents die for lack of organs."
The British Liver Trust said it was imperative to remove any perception that hospitals had a financial incentive to operate on non-UK residents. Commenting on the report, Chief Executive, Alison Rogers said,
"With not enough livers for all patients in the UK, this is a very emotive issue both for patients and also for the families of people who have donated such a precious gift,"
Daniel was lucky to have received two transplants in his short lifetime. As Daniel's family we will always be grateful to two very special families who gave Daniel such an incredible gift. Raising awareness of the need for more people to sign the Organ Donor Register is very important to us.
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