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Surgeon attacks foreign use of British organs
Mark Blunden05.01.09
A LEADING transplant surgeon today hit out at two London hospitals for allowing foreigners to leap-frog NHS queues for liver transplants.
Professor Nadey Hakim, one of the UK's top kidney surgeons, believes British donors will be "horrified" to hear how 50 livers were given to non-British patients over the past two years.
King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead performed the majority of NHS operations on 40 Greeks and Cypriots.
Further private procedures were undertaken on patients from countries including China, Libya, Kuwait and Israel, seven of whom were classed as deserving equal access to services. NHS Blood and Transplant said giving British organs to foreigners was not unlawful. The Health department said non-EU patients must meet strict criteria. A record 8,000 UK patients are awaiting NHS transplants, with 325 needing a liver.
Professor Hakim, of the West London Transplant Unit, said: "We're desperate to get more organs and have got plenty of our own patients waiting, who are legitimate and deserve organs.
"The last thing we want to do is offer our organs to patients from other countries, let alone non-EU, and donors will be horrified to hear this is happening."
King's College Hospital in Denmark Hill admitted that 41 of its 395 liver transplants between January 2007 and last November were foreign nationals. King's said it was bound by EU law and European patients with no access to transplant programmes had the same rights to organs as Britons. Other UK hospitals such as Leeds do refuse them.
Reader views (29)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
The point your all missing is that if these organs are only compatible with the "Non-UK citizens" thats fair enough. They should then be sent overseas to the relevant countries and certainly not transplanted in this country. Lots of people WILL refuse to donate at all if this practice is not ended, and who could blame them?
- Steve Lane, Lancs/England
The trouble with this article is it doesn't clarify whether the organs that went to non UK citizens did so because these organs were not compatible with the UK citizens that were on the waiting list. Which I think is a key piece of information that should be verified or dispelled accordingly.
However I think it is absolutely fair to say as a UK citizen you should expect donation of your organs to be used to help other UK citizens first and foremost. It is the contribution we want to make to the society we live in.
If we have a donated organ that is not compatible with any UK citizen on the waiting list, then by all means help someone outside of the UK instead of letting the organ go to waste. But UK citizens for UK donors should be prioritised.
- Kj, Ashford, Kent
Bluntly - we need more organ donation in the UK so tearing up a donor card doesnt help. Kicking Brown doesnt help - he recognises that too many of us on the transplant list die waiting because not enough people have declared their support to their relatives and/or singed on the register BEFORE they meet an untimely end. About 2% of us die in circumstances where we can donate organs and about 7% of us will need organ/tissue donation at some point.
And you dont have to die to be able to help someone who needs a kidney. So if you know someone who does, preferably before they need dialysis, see if you are healthy enough to give them one of yours. You can also make the altruistic gift of a kidney to a complete stranger. Living kidney donation has the power to reduce the transplant waiting list.
- Helen R, London UK
It's really important to realise that the donor must be a tissue match for the recipient, and that compatibility is one in a hundred or rarer. It's certain in no few cases, that when an organ becomes available there is no COMPATIBLE recipient in the UK, and that in this circumstance the organ is passed to someone outside the UK who could accept it. Some recipients die waiting because no compatible organ is donated during the months or years that they need it.
So please don't tear up your donor cards!
- Nigel, London
So Crash Gordon is now selling the UKs dead to finance his "Bust" policies
- Alan Rogers, Hove
i don't wonder the NHS costs so much, we are not running a national heath service we are running a international heath service.
- John Horton, Cannock England
This is terrible. The British are treated as second class citizens to people who have no rights. Why can't they receive these services in their own countries???
I will not be donating any blood or my organs. I want to be able to say who receives my donations.
- Andrew, London
I have just posted my driving licence renewal on which I opted to donate all my organs, Ive heared that money is obtained for these non EU operations, some of which goes to the surgeon. I should not like money to be made from my organs which are donated freely. It was bad enough to hear in a recent court case of terrorist bombers that the two found guilt were qualified doctors, so much for their oath. Now it would seem that we have some surgeons with the morals of some of the members of the American leagal profession
- Amazed, Gosport hants
My mother had a liver transplant at Kings last year and it has improved her quality of life massively.
Almost 90% of the livers went to British patients. By all means question eligibility but instead of putting your donor card in the bin use this as an opportunity to consider if you would be willing for your organ to be used to save a life.
If you don't object then carry the card and tell your family your wishes. It is a much easier decision for them if the worst happens if they know your wishes.
- Paul, London
Not for a minute would I dare suggest this has anything to do with the fact that foreigners pay substantially higher
hospital and surgeons fees.
- Ciccio, Toronto, Canada.
Don't forget that you can't just randomly give out livers to people - they have to be a match or they would be rejected! I'm guessing the livers given out were to Greeks who were a match assuming there were no matches for them in the UK - it would be a shame to waste it if there is a match elsewhere. Also, the livers were given to 'foreign nationals' which means people who are actually British but of foreign origin i.e. people who have lived here long enough to be considered citizens and who have paid national insurance contributions. In addition, Brits regularly visit Cyprus and jump queues for treatment such as cancer treatment at their centres because the waiting list is too long - should they also be denied or should patients be treated on the basis of medical need which is the only objective method of assessing a patient?
- Chris, London, UK
Nobodys getting my organs tell brown to stick his opt out opt in or whatever system he is proposing
- Jake, heswall
Quite disturbing to see comments about the number of UK citizens dying while waiting for transplants immediately preceded by 'my donor card's going in the bin'. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face! You'd really rather save no life at all than risk saving that of a foreign national? With attitudes like that around, it's no wonder we're short of organs.
- Lorna, Bournemouth
my card has also gone in the bin
- Dennis Trowbridge, Bristol England
cant believe it!what a waste i'm definatly not bothering to carry card again.
- Chan, grantham uk
This article and the comments so far, show Brits to be very selfish! I'm sure just as many Brits received their organs from foreigners.
- Acibeb, London, UK
Bloody scandalous, another example of 'rights' smothering common sense. The net result of this will reduce organ donations.
- Andy Anderson, Portpatrick, Scotland
I thought this country has lost its way on many levels. I now find another. My thoughts go to the families of those who died in this country, by not receiving these organs.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke
How many people from this country were given donor organs from abroad, or is this like our relationship with America, a one way street.
- Michael Murphy, brightlingsea england
"Thanks for the warning my card as just gone into the bin." - Stephend, London, England
Your card has gone in the bin... why? Will not saving anyone's life solve the problem? Respectfully, I don't think that's the way to handle this.
Let's concentrate on getting out from under the thumb of the EU and Labour, cleaning up an NHS that values money more than lives, and then we can worry about whether the "right people" are being saved.
- Dan F., Oxford, UK
Flash Gordon would happily give eveything the British have worked hard to achive over the past thousand years to any 'worthy' individual so long as they are not British. Why would we be surprised that he is giving away our bodies as well?
- Ben, London, W1
After reading this I have decided to cut up my donor card.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
It is disdusting,That I a British White has to be worked over to give non brits British organs,but lets face it,It's the money.
- Jk Waddington, cleverland
yet another example of putting foreign patients above indigenous UK patients. I wonder exactly who 'decides' the eligibility for treatment? Also, the last time i looked, you had to have a National Insurance number to qualify for NHS care - is this now deemed 'racist' to ask for proof of contributions???
- Gary, amersham
Charity starts at home. I'm all for England and the UK helping out the rest of the world, but it is imperative that our ship is righted first. How are we supposed to help others if we can't help ourselves?
Stories like this lend more support to a break from the European Union simply because we can't have national policy dictated from abroad, whether that's the health service, education or our economy. The UK can not afford to become powerless to Brussells especially in the depression we are now in.
- Kj, Ashford, Kent
Thanks for the warning my card as just gone into the bin.
- Stephend, London, England
Does not suprise me under browns goverment the only thing that matters is financial gain.Uk citizens always come second My donor cards going in the bin.How many uk citizen die each year waiting for a transplant .And to find the organs going to foreigners.so much for trying to make donor cards compulsory.Brown trying to look good to secure a plum job when he loses next election.
- M Smith, dukinfield uk
Our present government are eager for a law allowing doctors to plunder the bodies of British dead unless they have opted out deliberately.
It is a comfort to know that these same dead are being used as a source of transplant for half the planet. Free at the point of delivery. Well a comfort for the foreigners anyway.
Is nothing sacred? Brits have no rights alive, it appears to be the same when dead. Foreigners first.
Elizabeth
- Elizabeth, herts england
If this is true, it is disgusting, but not surprising anymore in this country. It should be Brits first for everything, then everyone else second!
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
