Opt out scheme 'only way to tackle organ donor shortage'

Britain's Chief Medical Officer has called for Britain's current donor system to be completely revamped with everyone to be treated as organ donors after death unless they explicitly choose to opt out of the scheme.

The NHS needs three times the number of organ donors on its register, said Sir Liam Donaldson.

Sir Liam used the unveiling of his annual report on the nation's health to call for the opt-out scheme in a bid to resolve the problem.

According to figures quoted in his report, 70 per cent of people want to donate their organs after death but only 20 per cent are on the NHS organ donor register.

The current organ donor system is based on an 'opt-in' approach whereby people enrol on the NHS Organ Donor Register to give permission for their organs to be used in the event of their death.

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The report proposes an 'opt-out' system be introduced, similar to that in some other European countries which has helped improve their supply of organs. An opt-out system would mean people would register to say they specifically do not want to be donors rather than they do.

Sir Liam said: "There are simply not enough organs donated to meet the need for transplants, with one person dying every day while waiting for a transplant. Compounding this are issues surrounding consent, which often reduce this number further.

"To meet current demand for organs the number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register would need to approximately treble. I believe we can only do this through changing the legislation to an opt-out system with proper regulation and safeguards."

Sir Liam also called for action on the 'unacceptably' low level of hand hygiene in hospitals.

He has proposed that patients be encouraged to tackle hospital staff on hand hygiene and that patients should be equipped with their own supplies of anti-bacterial handrubs which they could offer to hospital staff before they were dealt with.

Experience in some other countries - notably Switzerland - shows that high standards of hand hygiene cuts infection rates and saves lives. Studies have shown that patients are reluctant to challenge doctors and nurses even when they know that they have not cleaned their hands, said the report.

Sir Liam Donaldson said: "Good hand hygiene should be a natural reflex for healthcare professionals, yet it no longer has the status it once had. Every time a patient is touched, several thousand bacteria can be passed between the clinician and a patient.

"Yet patients do not feel able to ask their doctor or nurse if they have washed their hands before touching them. I believe that by empowering patients to work with healthcare professionals on this issue we can improve hand cleaning rates amongst healthcare staff and reduce the number of infections."

Other issues tackled included reducing the risk of radiation overdoses during cancer treatment by extending the use of monitoring devices to all radiotherapy machines in the country.

More research was called for to establish the reasons why 500 babies die each year despite starting the process of birth apparently healthy ('intrapartum-related deaths') and steps should also be taken to increase the number of women in the most senior positions in medicine, said the report.