OFFICIALS are to examine a Scottish health board which has bucked a UK-wide decline in the number of people donating organs.
Donor numbers have fallen for the first time across the UK in more than a decade, dropping five per cent year-on-year. It led to warnings that unless there is a "revolution in attitudes", people waiting for a transplant will continue to die needlessly.
However, in NHS Grampian, the donor rate has increased substantially and there were 15 deceased organ donors in 2014/15, compared to only three in 2010/11.
As of March this year 31, 43 per cent of the population in Grampian were on the NHS Organ Donor Register, 10 per cent higher than the UK average.
Public Health Minister Maureen Watt said: “We are making significant progress on organ donation. Since we started our plan of improvement in 2008 we have seen an 82 per cent increase in deceased donor numbers; a 42 per cent increase in the number of transplants undertaken and the active transplant waiting list has reduced by over 20 per cent.
“I am very aware that organ donation can only occur as a result of tragic circumstances and it is important that we pay tribute to the organ donors and to their families who made the decision to help others.
"We will now look to see what lessons can be learned from Grampian and see if this can be replicated in other hospitals in Scotland.”
Dr Iain Macleod, clinical lead for organ donation at NHS Grampian, said: “We have worked hard to support more families as they make the choice to donate their loved ones’ organs.
"I would encourage anyone who wants to help people to live after their death to sign the NHS organ donor register and to ensure their relatives are aware of their wishes.”
Across the UK, fewer people dying in circumstances where they could donate and no increase in the rate of people signing up to give consent for their organs to be used have been cited as the main reasons behind the five per cent drop.
Figures from the Organ Donation and Transplantation Activity Report 2014/15 shows there were 4,431 transplants compared with 4,655 in 2013/14. It means 224 fewer people received an organ transplant.
Of the transplants carried out, 1,092 were made possible by living donors who gave a kidney or part of their liver, while 3,339 patients benefitted from organs donated after death.
NHS Blood and Transplant, the body which published the report and leads organ donation across the UK, is now calling for the public to discuss organ donation.
It said that the consent/authorisation rate remains "stubbornly" below 60 per cent.
The report said families are much more likely to agree to donation if they know it is what their loved one wanted.
Last year, nearly nine out of 10 families said yes when their loved one's decision to donate was known. But the report says even then, 120 families felt unable to honour their loved one's decision to donate, denying them their dying wish to save others after their death.
Sally Johnson, NHS Blood and Transplant's director of organ donation and transplantation, said: "We understand that families are expected to consider donation in their darkest hour so we would remind everyone to tell those closest to you now if you want to donate your organs - and then record that decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register."
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