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Last year over 2500 patients were admitted to hospitals in Northern Ireland and diagnosed with liver disease.
In the UK there are 15.8m people (26% of population) on the NHS Organ Donor Register. This includes 413,000 (23%) of the population of Northern Ireland. Waiting There are around 8000 people in the UK waiting for some form of transplant, 314 of these in Northern Ireland of which 4 are for livers. Transplants In the year to March 2008, 3235 transplants were carried out. Of these 619 were liver transplants including 27 on patients from Northern Ireland. Shortage of Donor Organs With 8000 waiting and on average only around 3000 transplants carried out each year there is a chronic shortage of donated organs. The Government set up a UK wide Organ Donation Taskforce to identify barriers to organ donation and recommend actions needed to increase numbers on the Donor register. The Taskforce considered a presumed consent (opt out) system but has just published its report rejecting the proposal on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence that it would have a major impact on donations. Other recommendations for a change in the way organ donation is tackled are being considered. |