Government announces appointment of ‘transplant tsar’

The Department of Health has announced the appointment of a new national clinical director for transplants, with Chris Rudge dubbed the ‘transplant tsar’.

It reports that the aim of this appointment will be to drive forward governmental plans to increase the number of people who can benefit from organ transplants.

Earlier this year, the government accepted recommendations made by the Organ Donation Taskforce to increase investment in order to achieve a 50 per cent increase in the number of donor organs available for transplant over the next five years.

In addition to the appointment of Mr Rudge, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director at the Department of Health, has been selected to chair the implementation group to support his work.

Mr Rudge said: “Organ transplantation is one of medicine’s great success stories but tragically hundreds of people die in the UK every year because there are not enough organs.

“I feel privileged to be leading the day-to-day implementation of the Organ Donation Taskforce recommendations.”

He added that he is confident that the group can make a genuine difference over the next few years and will work to tackle the barriers to organ donation previously identified by the taskforce.

In October 2007, two couples participated in an organ-swapping scheme as part of the first ‘paired’ kidney transplant in the UK.