Britain Faces Transplant Organ Shortage

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's organ transplant system saw a sharp fall in the number of donors in the first half of the year, according to government figures released on Monday.

UK Transplant, the state body that runs the donor system, said the number of organ transplants fell by 13% in the six months to July compared to the same period in 2001.

"We just do not know when donors are going to arrive," UK Transplant's chief executive Sue Sutherland said in a statement. "The numbers of donors are random across any period of time and it is too early in this year to tell whether we have a major problem.

"We are doing everything we can to put in place programs across the NHS to increase donation."

A UK Transplant spokeswoman said 1,172 transplant operations took place between January and July 2002, compared with 1,328 in the same six months last year.

More than 5,600 patients were on the transplant waiting list earlier this week, a two percent rise on January. Nearly 400 people died waiting for a transplant last year, UK Transplant said.

One leading surgeon told the Times newspaper that doctors were not putting patients forward for heart transplants because of an organ shortage.

"For heart transplantation and lung transplantation it is a complete disaster," Professor Andrew Yardley, director of transplantation at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, southern England, was quoted as saying.

The Department of Health said fewer fatal road accidents had led to a shortage of potential donors.

"There aren't enough donors to match the number of patients waiting for transplants," a Department of Health spokesman said. "There are between three and four patients waiting for every organ that becomes available."

He said the National Health Service aimed to increase the number of people on the Organ Donor Register, a list of potential organ donors.

The government wants to add seven million more people to the register, which currently has details of more than 9.2 million Britons.

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This article posted August 12, 2002.