George Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will undertake a national review of liver transplantation services to help (a) ensure better access for patients and (b) increase capacity.

Nicola Blackwood

NHS England intends to review liver transplantation services during 2018/19. There is sufficient capacity to transplant the organs that are donated currently.

Organ donor and transplant rates have been increasing steadily over the last eight years. In 2008/09 there were 1,860 donors and 3,513 solid organ transplants. In 2015/16 these figures were 2,439 donors and 4,601 transplants. This increase of 31% in both donors and transplants over this timeframe, was achieved mainly through a strengthening of the donation infrastructure including increased specialist nurses, improved retrieval arrangements, increasing consent rates and better organ utilisation.

The current United Kingdom strategy launched in July 2013, Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020, sets the agenda for increasing organ donation and transplantation rates still further.