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[The following Press Release was issued by UK TRANSPLANT on 14 April 2003]

RISE IN ORGAN TRANSPLANT NUMBERS

The UK has seen the highest number of organ transplants in six years.

Last year (1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003) 2,777 patients had their lives saved or dramatically improved through the generosity of 1,164 donors.

This equated to a 6% increase compared to the previous 12 months (1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002).

Furthermore, during 2002-2003:

• 75 more people received a kidney transplant
• 38 more people received a liver transplant
• the highest number of patients for six years received a kidney ransplant
• more people received a liver transplant than ever before
• more people received a pancreas transplant than ever before
• the highest number of people benefited from a cornea transplant for five years (1997-98)
• 240 more people had their sight restored than the previous year

Sue Sutherland, Chief Executive of UK Transplant, said: “This is a significant improvement - reversing what has been a steady decline in organ donation throughout the 1990s in this country.”

The dramatic turnaround follows UK Transplant’s £3.15m investment in hospital-based schemes to increase opportunities for donation.

Since September 2001, UK Transplant has invested in the recruitment of more doctors and nurses working in:

• 25 living donor programmes
• 6 non-heartbeating donor schemes, and
• 24 donor liaison nursing schemes.

In addition, an extra 10 transplant co-ordinators have been recruited so that as many people as possible are offered the opportunity to donate.

A further 1,240,359 people added their names to the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR) - nearly 18% of the UK population and the biggest increase for three years.

But the figures also reveal a drop in the number of heart transplants. The number of people waiting for an organ transplant also increased by 1% comparing year end figures, up from 5,604 to 5,654 by 31 March 2003 and 368 people died while waiting for an organ to become available.

Mrs Sutherland said: “There is still a critical shortage of donated organs. We know that many more lives could be saved if only more people talked about organ donation and registered their wishes on the ODR.

“A key reason why relatives feel unable to agree to donation is that they do not know what their loved one would have wished. We know, however, that family members rarely object if they know their relative wanted to help someone after their death.

“Many relatives have also told us that they have found some comfort in knowing that the loss of someone they love has given someone else the gift of life.”