Four City People Have Died Because of a Lack of Transplant Organs

By Diana Prince
dprince@eveningherald.co.uk
Plymouth Herald - 19/07/2007

Four City People Have Died Because of a Lack of Transplant Organs. Diana Prince gauges support for a call to automatically make everyone a donor

SURGEONS in Plymouth have welcomed a call to combat Britain's transplant "crisis" by radically changing how people become organ donors.
The Government's chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson said the only way to tackle a shortage of organs for transplantation is to treat all people as organ donors unless they opt out.
The current organ donor system is based on an 'opt-in' approach whereby people enrol on the NHS Organ Donor Register to give permission for their organs to be used in the event of their death.
Plymouth consultant surgeon Mr John Shaw said that despite a "few practicalities" around the proposal, such as how patients' decision to opt out would be recorded securely, it would generally be a welcome.
He said: "In general I think it is a good idea and even just the discussion around it is positive, because it gets people talking about organ donation, especially with their loved ones.
"I believe that the majority of people would rather donate their organs after death than be buried or cremated with them."
Four people in the Plymouth area have died while waiting for organ transplants in the past year, according to Government figures.
Andrew Broderick, transplant co-ordinator in Plymouth, said while he is neither for or against the scheme, it is vital to raise awareness of organ donation.
"What is most important is to raise the awareness of donation and transplantation and get people talking about their wishes, especially with their loved ones," he said.

The NHS needs three times the number of organ donors on its register, Sir Liam said yesterday when unveiling his annual report on the nation's health.
According to figures quoted in the report, 70 per cent of people want to donate their organs after death but only 20 per cent are on the NHS organ donor register.
Sir Liam said: "There are simply not enough organs donated to meet the need for transplant, with one person dying every day while waiting for a transplant. Compounding this are issues sur¬rounding consent, which often reduces this number further. To meet the current demand for organs, the number of people on the NHS donor register would need to approximately treble."

Nationally, Dr Tony Calland, chairman of the '72 medical ethics committee for the British Medical Association (BMA), has said it "fully supports" the opt-out proposal.A Department of Health spokesperson said they are grateful to the chief medical officer for the report and they will give careful consideration to the issues raised. 'Opt-out' systems have been introduced in some other European countries which has helped improve their supply of organs.
For information about the organ donor register, call 0845 6060400 or 01752 437145. Or log on to www.uktransplant.org.uk