Scottish Donation and Transplant Group written update: April 2025

NHS Blood and Transplant update 

Update given by:

• Anthony Clarkson, Director of Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation

UK deceased donation and transplant activity

There were 1,403 deceased donors in 2024 to 2025 resulting in 3,597 organ transplants by year-end. This equates to achieving 90% of the annual donor target and 95% of the transplant target.

The shortfall in donor numbers is largely attributed to a declining pool of eligible donors, a shift in the ratio of Donation after Brain Death (DBD) to Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) and a continued reduction in the consent/authorisation rate. Consent/authorisation remains a major challenge, with the UK consent rate standing at 59% for the year.

Improvement activity

To help tackle the issues highlighted above, several key focussed initiatives have been launched.

A pathway improvement workshop was held in April, bringing together key stakeholders from across organ donation and transplantation in the UK to explore these issues in depth. A report summarising the workshop outcomes and recommended actions will be published shortly.

A Consent and Registration Improvement Board (CRIB) working group has been formed to focus on ways we can drive more ODR registrations to improve consent/authorisation.

The Organ Donation Joint Working Group (ODJWG) has an event scheduled for June, which will convene UK and international experts to identify barriers and share best practice to increase both the pool of potential donors and consent rates.

Living donation performance

Year-to-date, there have been 984 living donors, exceeding the target of 971, demonstrating a positive indicator of continued engagement and commitment within the living donation programme.

Marketing

We had a total of 735,000 new opt-in registrations in the UK in 2024 to 2025 (against a target of 700,000-750,000). This represents a 5% increase verses last year’s total.

Consent is still below target, currently sitting at 59%, 10% lower than its peak five years ago. A working group has been formed to explore ways of improving this through a focus on developing partnerships and driving more registrations.

The Home Office has agreed to expand the partnership to include a link to register for organ donation on all passport applications, where as it previously it was limited to just renewals. This will go live in Spring, with an exact date to be confirmed soon.

The first UK Living Donation Week was held from 10 to 16 March 2025 to drive awareness of living donation and the UK Living Kidney Sharing scheme. An evaluation report is being prepared to assess its success.

Finance

NHSBT has received it’s 2025 to 2026 funding settlement from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)  The funding settlement brings DCD Hearts, Abdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion (ANRP) and Clinical Leads Organ Utilisation (CLUs) into the baseline funding and removed the cross subsidy from blood. It has also been possible to allocate some funding to the development of an Assessment and Recovery (ARCs) programme of work.

We are now working with the other UK Health Departments regarding funding for 2025 to 2026 and going forward we hope to be able to develop a longer-term funding agreement.