News Release

24 January 2012

Plans unveiled for increasing living kidney transplantation

Plans aimed at transforming more lives through living kidney donation and transplantation are to be revealed.

Increasing patient choice and more opportunities for donation are key aims of the first UK Strategy for Living Donor Kidney Transplantation being launched by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) on 24 January.

The introduction of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006, allowed additional forms of living donation including paired and pooled donation, and altruistic non-directed donation which have steadily grown in popularity.

Before then, living donation was limited to exchanges between family members and life-long friends but added options for patients and clinical advances have helped increase living donation, and one in three of all organ transplants in the UK are now from a living donor.

Sally Johnson, Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation at NHSBT, said: "Living kidney donation currently helps to transform around three patients' lives every day in the UK and this strategy will enable even more lives to be saved.

"Living kidney transplantation is a highly successful, well managed and regulated procedure and these plans will continue to promote the highest standards of donor safety and welfare, as well as increasing the number of transplants taking place."

Living donor kidney transplants have increased three-fold in the past 10 years (1 April 2000-31 March 2010) and are highly successful with 93% of living kidney transplants still functioning well after the first year compared with 88% of those using deceased donor kidneys.

Public Health Minister Anne Milton said: "Donated organs save lives. You can save someone's life today.

"These plans will build on our already successful living donor programme. It will help donors and recipients plan ahead, but most importantly it will lead to more successful transplants.

"We are working closely with NHS Blood and Transplant to help make sure we have robust commissioning arrangements in place so the number of living donors can continue to grow."

Ends

We have spokespeople available for interview. To arrange this, or for further information, please contact the NHSBT press office on 0117 969 2444, pressoffice@nhsbt.nhs.uk or out of hours 07659 133583.

Notes to editors

- From January 2012, the National Living Donor Kidney Sharing Schemes (NLDKSS) will be the collective term used to describe the schemes in which donated kidneys are 'shared' across the UK. These include:
1. Paired/pooled donation (PPD)
2. Non-directed altruistic donation (NDAD)
3. Altruistic Donor Chains (ADC)

- The rate of living kidney transplantation in the UK is currently 16 per million population (pmp), which compares favourably with countries with whom the UK has traditionally benchmarked its practice, eg Norway (17pmp).

- Between 1 April 2002 and 31 Dec 2011, government investment in living kidney donation has helped facilitate a total of 7,355 living kidney transplants across the UK.

- To date across the UK (17 January 2012), there have been 128 paired/pooled kidney transplants (34 paired exchanges=68 paired transplants and 20 pooled exchanges=60 pooled transplants) and a further 93 non-directed altruistic living donor kidney transplants.

- Most of the UK transplant list is made up of patients waiting for a kidney-only transplant - currently 6,492

- There are 23 adult kidney transplant centres in the UK, nine of which have embedded paediatric centres; there is one stand-alone paediatric centre which refers to another adult centre for the purposes of living donor kidney transplantation.

- How to approach the NHS about becoming a living donor - If you know the person who you are considering donating to, you will need to contact the hospital/transplant centre where the intended recipient is cared for. If you do not know who the intended recipient might be, the best thing to do is to contact your local transplant centre for further advice. A list of kidney transplant centres can be found here.

- For more information in general about living organ donation, click here

- NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is a joint England and Wales Special Health Authority. Its remit includes the provision of a reliable, efficient supply of blood and associated services to the NHS in England and North Wales. It is also the organ donor organisation for the UK and is responsible for matching and allocating donated organs.

- The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) is a watchdog that protects public confidence by licensing organisations that store and use human tissue for purposes such as research, patient treatment, post-mortem examination, teaching, and public exhibitions. It also gives approval for organ and bone marrow donations from living people.