Sturgeon sets new target as number of organ donors hits ten-year high

Published on Thursday 14 May 2009 22:04

THE number of organ donors in Scotland has hit a ten-year high – but the country still lags behind most of western Europe.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday 72 deceased donors had given organs in 2008-9 – meaning some 250 organs were made available for transplants around the UK.

This rate of 14.1 donors per million of the population compares with 9.8 per million two years ago. But Scotland still lags behind countries such as Spain, with a rate of about 35 per million. The UK also has lower rates than the United States, France, Austria and Italy.

Ms Sturgeon welcomed the fact donor numbers were rising, but said there was still some way to go to match other countries.

Scotland has a target to reach a donor rate of 24 per million by 2013. That would mean 120 donors were available.

Ms Sturgeon told an NHS conference in Edinburgh: "We want to bring about a doubling of the number of organ donors. But that's against a background of the UK – including Scotland – having had one of the lowest rates of organ donation in western Europe."

Nearly 3,500 transplants were carried out in the UK in 2008-9. But each year, about 1,000 people die while on the waiting list for an organ, and almost 8,000 people are currently waiting for a transplant.

The UK Organ Donation Taskforce has made recommendations to increase the number of donors, including raising public awareness of the need for donors and making sure the NHS has staff to co-ordinate the donation process. But despite rising numbers of people signing the donor register, some 40 per cent of families refuse permission to use their loved-ones' organs.

John Forsythe, Scotland's lead clinician for transplantation, said it was vital families were dealt with sensitively when approached about donation. He said organ retention scandals and cases such as killer GP Harold Shipman may have had an impact on people's perceptions of donation, as these incidents created "

a slight loss of trust between those who deliver care and those who receive care on the NHS".

He went on: "I think that loss of trust meant people in that very difficult situation were more reflexly likely to say 'no'. But I think that is beginning to die out and people realise that for organ donation and transplant, we have always asked.

"We have always let relatives know. There has never been any going ahead without telling people."

Mr Forsythe said NHS staff still faced many ethical dilemmas when making decisions about donation, such as whether a patient should be transferred to intensive care to help preserve organs, even though there was no hope they would survive.

But increased awareness of the need for organs and advances in technology that meant more organs could be used from "non-heart-beating donors" should help increase transplant surgery in the future, he said.

Last year, experts said there was "insufficient evidence" to support a change to "presumed consent" in organ donation in the UK in a bid to increase transplant numbers.

This would mean people would have to opt out of donation rather than opting in as at present on the donor register.

Yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said she remained committed to reviewing the issue of presumed consent in five years, after seeing if other methods worked to increase donor numbers.

"If we can get there in different ways by implementing the taskforce recommendations, let's put our shoulder to the wheel and do that," she said.

In death, our son helped five others to live

A SCHOOLBOY who was knocked down and killed by a motorbike has given the gift of life to five people.

Daryl Turley, 13, suffered fatal head injuries when he was struck as he crossed a road a mile from his Hamilton home in January.

Yesterday, Daryl's mother, Lily, said she had decided to donate her son's organs after being impressed by the work of medics at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.

Mrs Turley said: "Our 13-year-old son passed away, and we chose to donate Daryl's organs, a difficult decision made easier by the excellent transplant liaison team."

Daryl's liver has been given to an 18-year-old girl from England who was suffering from sudden acute liver failure.

His heart was successfully transplanted into a five-year-old boy who had been hoping for an operation since last October.

His left kidney went to an 11-year-old boy who had previously suffered a failed transplant.

Daryl's right kidney was given to a 33-year-old married man, while his bowel was transplanted into a boy aged two.