Organ donations on the up says director of UK NHS Blood and Transplant
In the recent Transplant Activity Report 2012-13, Sally Johnson, Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation, NHS Blood and Transplant highlights a rise in organ donation for the fifth year in a row. This has seen the British National Health System achieve a fifty percent increase in deceased organ donors compared to 2007/8.
Without organ donors there can be no transplantation. According to Johnson, these organ donations have ensured that for the eighth year in a row the number of people benefitting from an organ transplant increased. The lives of 4,212 patients were saved or improved by an organ transplant (a 6% increase on 2011-12).
She also mentions that living donors continue to play a vital role in transplantation and the vast majority of living organ donors have given a kidney. Of the 1,068 people receiving a living donor kidney transplant, 76 were from non-directed altruistic living donors and 55 transplants were made possible by the paired living kidney donation program.
With the recent publication of “Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020 – a UK strategy”, Johnson believes that the UK can and must do more to save and improve lives through organ donation and transplantation. 57% of families consented or authorized deceased donation when approached in 2012-13.
For more information in the Transplant Activity Report, CLICK HERE.
