Organs: Donors
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the length of waiting lists for a lifesaving organ in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The active transplant waiting list in the United Kingdom is above pre-pandemic levels, with people waiting longer for a transplant than they have previously. As of 31 December 2024, there were 6,858 people on the transplant waiting list in England, and 113 people in Lincolnshire, excluding temporarily suspended patients.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) manage transplant services across the UK. They are working to reduce the number of patients on the waiting list by revising the National Organ Retrieval Service to improve its efficiency, supporting clinical teams to increase the use of extended criteria donors, implementing new technology to improve non-use rates, and encouraging people to register to donate through high profile year-round campaigns including Organ Donation Week, World Sight Day, and World Kidney Day, in partnership with a wide range of charities and community groups.
The Department, NHSBT, and NHS England are working together to improve utilisation of all solid organs following recommendations from the Organ Utilisation Group 2023 report. Once fully implemented, the aim is to utilise more donor organs for transplant to save and improve the lives of those on the waiting list.
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