Opt-out bid for organ donation

Plans to move to an opt-out system for organ donations could boost the rate of donations by almost a third, MSPs have been told.

Labour MSP Anne McTaggart told Holyrood’s Health Committee that her Transplantation Bill was “absolutely” necessary as the current opt-in arrangement “is not working”. The legislation proposes amove from a system in which people have to actively join the NHS Organ Donation Register to a “soft” opt-out approach in a bid to tackle a shortage of organs.

Ms McTaggart told the committee: “We do need to increase transplantation.

“The first-quarter figures for this year show that we areheadingforanevenbigger decrease in deceased donor rates of 10%.

“We have to do something different, whatever we are doing now is not working.”

Under the plans, organs and tissues could be removed from an adult after death if they had not registered or expressed an objection in their lifetime.

Families would also be consulted. Dr James Cant, director of British Heart Foundation Scotland, highlighted that46% of families had refused a donation in 2014/15 because they did not know what their relative’s wishes were.

He said: “The conversations are not taking place and the rate of family refusal is on the increase.”