Independence: Organ transplant claims challenged

A LEADING kidney specialist has challenged claims from pro-UK campaigners that an independent Scotland would have problems getting vital organ transplants from the rest of the UK.

Izhar Khan, a consultant at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, has said that he works with professionals across Europe and has no doubt that transplants would continue to be provided on the same basis as now.

His intervention follows claims by the Better Together campaign last week that by leaving the UK, Scotland would be leaving the British NHS and would be faced with greater bureaucracy in getting transplants.

But Mr Khan said: “This appears to be nothing more than scaremongering. As a doctor, I do not ask if a patient is Scottish, English, Irish or Welsh. Doctors treat patients, not nationalities.

“An independent Scotland would continue these arrangements for a number of very straightforward and sensible reasons - not least because these services are paid for and are extra-contractual.

“Money follows the patient from Scotland and the struggling NHS in England is not going to refuse lucrative contracts.”

A mother from Lockerbie has also highlighted how doctors in Scotland, England and Germany worked together “with no red tape, no fuss and no personal cost” to save her baby son from a rare, life-threatening condition.

Care home worker Vicky Pears, 33, said: “The doctors, nurses and support staff in all three countries all just got on and did what they had to do to help my child. They were brilliant.”

She added: “Having to fly with my sick baby to Germany was a traumatic experience, but there was no fuss, no red tape and they all just got on and did what they had to do to help my child. They were brilliant.”