Organ Donation

Philip Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Dr Poulter]

As the Minister will be aware, in 1994, there were 2,500 people on the organ donor waiting list, and last year there were over 7,500. Only 29% of the UK population are signed up to organ donation, which is woefully inadequate given that 552 people died last year while waiting for an organ transplant, excluding those who were taken off the list because they had become too unwell. It is a big problem; people are living longer, sometimes with multiple medical co-morbidities, which means that more people will need transplants. The problem will become an increasing challenge for health care providers and the Government.

Philosophically, I agree with the Minister and I am not in favour of compulsion. Does he agree, however, that we need a more targeted community-focused approach and, as with the cot death campaign that reduced cot deaths from 2,000 to about 300—

[Philip Davies (in the Chair)]

Order. Interventions must be brief.

[Paul Burstow]

The hon. Gentleman advances an important point. We cannot tackle the issue from the top down; it requires leadership from the bottom up in local communities. That is why NHS Blood and Transplant’s website provides constituency-level information about the number of people on the register, the number of transplants that have taken place, and the number of people waiting for a transplant. That information is invaluable to us as MPs and leaders in our local communities, and we should work with others in our community to break down some of the barriers of misunderstanding and misconception that were referred to by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West.

We have seen an increase in the number of organ donors by around 28% since 2008, and we are on track to meet the 50% improvement by 2013 set by the taskforce. As the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) said, 29% of the UK population are on the organ donor register, and it is interesting to note how levels of registration change from one constituency to another—I urge hon. Members to look at that. The number of deceased organ donations rose to 1,010 in 2010-11, compared with 745 in 2001-02. The year 2010-11 also saw a record number of transplants from deceased and living donors, with 3,740 transplants carried out in the UK, compared with 2,633 in 2001-02.

Despite the considerable progress made over the past few years, however, there is still a shortage of organs donated for transplant. The situation is particularly serious for people from African-Caribbean and Asian backgrounds, because they are three to five times more likely to need a kidney transplant than white people. That is why we cannot be complacent, and we will continue to work with partner organisations to promote donations. That can be done through the Give and Let Live initiative in schools, where new information about the issue is circulated by NHS Blood and Transplant; by requiring people to answer a question about organ donation when applying for a driving licence; or by asking people to sign the organ donor register when applying for a European health insurance card and so on. The African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust seeks to raise the importance of organ donation in black and minority ethnic communities, and local leadership is a key ingredient in delivering improvement.

Through various public awareness campaigns, NHS Blood and Transplant also publicises the need for more people to register as donors. Work continues at national, regional and local levels further to strengthen the donation programme, to support the excellent work of the NHS in identifying, referring and procuring donor organs, and to make organ donation a usual part of end-of-life care.

I am grateful for the opportunity to reassure all hon. Members in the debate that, as we modernise the NHS, we will continue to focus on driving forward an improvement in donation rates. To maintain that momentum, with the support of all UK health administrations, we have established a transitional steering group that includes health departments, NHS Blood and Transplant, the British Transplantation Society, and the royal colleges. It aims to focus on actions that will continue to embed donation within end-of-life care, and provide a link between oversight of the programme delivery board and the establishment of the NHS commissioning board in 2013. It will also provide a clear link to Health Ministers for any reports on progress.

The transitional steering group will focus on six key areas: increasing consent rates; brain stem death testing in all appropriate cases; donation after circulatory death to be considered in all circumstances; increased donation from emergency medicine; increased and more timely referral of potential donors; and improved donor management. The work of the transitional steering group will continue to drive improvements in the UK’s organ donation programme, and increase donation rates.

The hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West asked about leadership, which is an essential issue. The national clinical director for transplantation, Chris Rudge, has recently retired from that role, although I confirm that he will be appointed as leader of the transitional group, which will provide continuity of leadership. I hope that that reassures the hon. Gentleman, and others, about the Government’s serious intent to deliver on the important target. I can also inform the hon. Gentleman that we will not wait until 2013 to look at what should happen next, and we have already begun to develop a post-2013 strategy. NHS Blood and Transplant is starting to prepare the relevant documents, and is working closely with the transitional steering group.

This has been an incredibly important debate and significant points have been raised. I hope I have demonstrated that, in terms of leadership, intent and drive, we are committed to building on the improvements we have already seen and, where appropriate, to learn lessons from other parts of the world. That will require us all to play our part in raising awareness of organ donation, and of what the consequences for people’s lives will be if donations are not made.

As the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West said, donation is a precious gift. We need more people to realise that and give such a gift by putting their name on the register and being willing to donate.