Scottish Donation and Transplant Group written update: April 2025

Living donation update

Update given by:

• Jen Lumsdaine, Living Donor Co-ordinator, NHS Lothian

Education and publicity

World Kidney Day provided an opportunity for multi-media coverage of living kidney donor transplantation in Scotland, with both BBC and STV news items and radio and news articles.

Ms Minto, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health attended the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh to meet a living donor pair (two friends) and visited the SNBTS Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics laboratory to highlight that pairs do not need to be related to be a match. 

Renal Education and Choices at Home (REACH) Transplant

The REACH Transplant Programme Lead, Orla Hobson, has recently taken up a new post within the NHS. Orla was pivotal in the initial pilot of REACH Transplant and established the Scotland-wide team following her appointment as programme lead. Her input has been very much appreciated by us all and we acknowledge the impact she has made within living donation. 

Following discussion, it was agreed that the role should now be established within a national nursing structure and SNBTS have agreed to facilitate the employment and line management of the REACH Transplant Programme Lead, with professional leadership remaining with the Living Donation Scotland Board. 

Timely transplantation 

It was decided at the Living Donor Forum in Stirling in December 2024 that the short term working group, chaired by Ms Karen Stevenson, Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Glasgow would consider a national quality improvement initiative. The REACH Transplant Programme Lead will be working with the group to take forward the quality improvement framework.

Living donation workforce planning/reimbursement of loss of earnings

Following the identification of the time that clinical staff are spending on reimbursement of loss of earning administration, discussion took place at the Living Donor Forum in Stirling with proposed changes to the policy. This will allow administration staff to directly liaise with donors to collect evidence required for claims.

Kidney transplant Scotland 2016 to 2024/25