Government behind 50% increase in organ donations

The government has confirmed that it has backed the latest recommendations from the Organ Donation Taskforce in a bid to increase organ donations in the UK by 50 per cent in the next five years.

Publishing its Organ for Transplants report today, the task force has called for significant changes to existing arrangements regarding organ donations.

It recommends that an extra 100 donor transplant coordinators should be recruited to work with hospitals and advise families through the donation process.

The taskforce also calls for the creation of a strengthened network of dedicated organ retrieval teams which would be available 24 hours a day and would work closely with critical care teams in hospitals to retrieve high quality organs for transplant across the UK.

Health secretary Alan Johnson illustrated that around 2,400 people in the UK benefited from organ transplant last year but over a thousand people die each year waiting for a transplant.

“These recommendations are an essential first step to improve the systems supporting organ donation.”

He went on to confirm that the taskforce would now be considering the issue of presumed consent and how it could increase organ donation.

Earlier this week, prime minister Gordon Brown has announced that the consultation on the nation’s carers initiated last June will inform the new carers strategy to be launched by the government.