Organ transplant aftercare and support in Scotland Transplant patient survey report

9. Recommendations

The recommendations to achieve a more patient-centred service, and ensure appropriate support is in place for all transplant recipients across Scotland, include:

9.1 Celebrate positive feedback

The Scottish Government and NSD should ensure transplant teams are informed of the positive feedback received from patients and encouraged to continue to deliver the highly valued services.

9.2 Advice to transplant recipients

All patients should be made aware of online information resources and signposted to trusted resources e.g. NHS Blood and Transplant Patient Information Area (https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/organ-transplantation) by their transplant team if they report using the internet.

NSD to request that Transplant Centres review and update their websites to ensure that they are patient-focussed and provide relevant information about living with a transplant.

Scottish Government to engage with patient support and charity groups to discuss how they could further support post-transplant patients by signposting them to trusted resources.

9.3 Emotional/psychological support

The patient survey has highlighted an unmet need for emotional/psychological support for transplant recipients in general, although when divided into organ-specific services, it is noted that some services provide an accessible and highly valued psychology service.

NSD to explore with transplant units and NHS Boards the reasons why some patients haven’t been able to access emotional or psychological support and seek to explore opportunities to improve access to support at the appropriate time.

Transplant centres and NHS Boards are advised to review the provision of psychology sessions and their current practice in how these sessions are used, and whether they are able to offer psychological support to recipients.

Transplant teams should engage with charities and patient support groups to promote to patients and family members or carers the availability of emotional support, in particular through peer support networks.

The positive role of transplant coordinators and specialist nurses in providing emotional/psychological support to recipients should be endorsed.

Emotional/psychological support should be delivered in person and on a one-to-one basis, whenever possible, in view of the clear preference expressed by patients.

9.4 Transplant aftercare and remote monitoring

Transplant centres should explore those cases where patients report not being able to access local phlebotomy services and seek to ensure they have access to these services where required.

Where a remote consultation is possible and appropriate, it should be considered as an option and offered to patients. Clinical teams and patients should however decide how best to deliver the most appropriate personalised care in each situation