Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had on presumed consent for organ donations in England.

Jane Ellison

There have been no such recent discussions although this subject has been discussed during debates on organ donation. Our efforts remain focussed on the delivery of the seven year United Kingdom-wide organ donation and transplantation strategy published by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) on 11 July 2013. We are taking specific action to encourage registration on the Organ Donor Register, to promote discussion within families about donation and to increase consent rates to organ donation, particularly raising awareness of donation in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population.

Organ donation rates are 62% and transplant rates some 44% higher than they were in 2008. This has been achieved mainly through a strengthening of the donation infrastructure, by increasing the number of specialist nurses and by improving retrieval arrangements.