Transplants: The Facts 2006

By Helen Pearse
hpearse@eveningherald.co.uk
Evening Herald - 12/07/2006

• National Transplant Week started on Sunday and runs until Saturday.
• The team at the South West Transplant Centre, based at Derriford Hospital, wants to thank people in the South West for their continued support with organ donation and say they are proud about their transplant and organ donor statistics.
• The South West region has the highest percentage of the population on the NHS Organ Donor register, at 28 per cent compared to a national average of 22 per cent.
• Derriford Hospital's South West Transplant Centre performed a record 53 kidney transplants in 2006.
• In 2005 the South West Transplant Centre broke its own annual record for the number of kidney transplants carried out. Fifty-one kidney transplants werecarried out at the region's biggest hospital last year, the highest number since the first transplant performed there was done in 1973.
• The rate of organs being donated from patients who are deceased in the South West Transplant Centre increased by 73 per cent in financial year 2005-06 (26) compared to 2004-05 (15).
• The rate of organs being donated from patients who are deceased in the South West Transplant Centre increased by 175 per cent between April 1, 2006 and June 22, 2006 (11), compared to the same period last year (four).
• The number of live donor kidney transplants has increased by 80 per cent at the South West Transplant Centre, from five in 2004-05 to nine in 2005-06.

Donor transplant co-ordinator Jacquie Spencer said: "One of the reasons for the rise in transplants is that people now have more choice about how they are able to donate.
"The live kidney donor programme has successfully expanded and more people are now offering to donate to a family member. "Another programme started in February 2005 which was part-funded by UK Transplant, Controlled Non-Heart Beating Donation, which has boosted the numbers further. "In September the new Human Tissue Act 2004 comes into play. This Act now puts the wishes of the deceased as paramount. Therefore if someone has consented to organ and tissue donation in life, by either carrying a donor card or registering on the NHS Organ Donor Register, then those wishes will be fulfilled wherever possible. "Altruistic donation will also become lawful. This will allow people to offer to donate a kidney in life to a stranger, as long as there is no payment involved. The selling of organs will remain illegal. We want to continue to build on this work and try to encourage even more people in the South West to sign up to become donors."

People can join the Organ Donor Register by contacting the Organ Donor Line on 0845 60 60 400 or visiting www.uktransplant.org.uk.