Govt appoints ‘transplant tsar’ to boost donations
A new ‘transplant tsar’ has been appointed to help increase the number of organ donations, the government has announced.
Chris Rudge, the transplant and managing director at UK Transplant, has been appointed the UK’s first clinical director for transplant.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director at the Department of Health, welcomed Mr Rudge to the new role.
He said: “We are delighted that a clinician of Mr Rudge’s standing has agreed to work with us to drive forward implementation of the Organ Donation Taskforce recommendations and help achieve the significant increases in transplants that will benefit so many people.”
The government wants to increase the number of organs donated for transplant by 50 per cent over the next five years, amid an acute shortage.
More than 8,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant and demand is rising by eight per cent a year.
Only 3,000 donations are carried out a year and it is estimated about one patient dies every day while waiting for an organ.
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 am confident that we can make a real difference to people’s lives over the next three to five years and will be working to overcome the barriers to organ donation identified by the taskforce and deliver the increase in transplants that is so desperately needed.”
In the autumn, health secretary Alan Johnson asked the Organ Donation Taskforce to look at the case of presumed consent – where people would be automatically treated as organ donors unless they opted out.
The taskforce is expected to report in the summer.
