Lung Diseases: Transplant Surgery

(asked on 2nd May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve the matching of donated lungs with people waiting for lung transplants.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 10th May 2018

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donor organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for promoting organ donation, maintaining the national transplant waiting list and the matching and offering of donated organs.

The policies for allocating lungs are developed in collaboration with the Cardiothoracic Advisory Group (comprised of cardiothoracic surgeons (lung and heart), commissioners and NHSBT) to ensure that the processes are clear, transparent and clinically effective. New systems were introduced in May 2017, to help ensure that the available lungs are offered to the most clinically urgent patients on the transplant waiting list.

Since this policy has been introduced, the following improvements have been observed:

- An increase in the number of patients receiving a transplant within one month of listing, with those in the clinically urgent groups receiving a transplant within two weeks on average; and

- A 15% increase in the number of lung transplants performed nationally.

The policies and processes relating to lung donation and allocation are monitored closely by NHSBT and further amendments will be made to the allocation policy if necessary.

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