Variation in organ donation across UK

There is significant variation in organ donation rates across the UK, according to research published in the BMJ Open on Monday.

Data from NHS Blood & Transplant from 1990-2009 was analysed and compared with registration and donation from other EU countries. Wales was consistently found to have a higher level of donation than the rest of the UK, for the last 20 years.

Northern Ireland had the lowest number, and while Scotland was second, the number of donations had fallen in the last few years. There were also significant variation in the type of organs donated; there were far fewer hearts donated in England.

Considering the implementation of presumed consent, which people would have the choice to opt-out of, the authors of the report claim results of this approach in other countries have been mixed.

They wrote: “Comparison of EU nations, and particularly Spain, indicates that improvement of organ donation rates is unlikely to be achieved by introducing new legislation alone.”