Scottish Donation and Transplant Group written update: December 2025

Histocompatibility and immunogenetics (HI) support for transplantation in Scotland

Update provided by:

• Dr David Turner, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service 
• Dr Catherine Hastie, Consultant Clinical Scientist, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Staffing 

Glasgow HI

The Consultant Clinical Scientist in Glasgow HI (Ann-Margaret Little) has recently retired and has been replaced by Catherine Hastie.  Two new band six members of staff have recently been recruited and they will both be going on-call in the next few months.

Edinburgh HI

Full establishment. The bid for monies to National Services Directorate (NSD) for a Band seven post for the development of HI Healthcare Scientists to take the Royal College of Pathology RCPath exams was successful. Post has now been recruited and will enable succession planning for senior roles in Edinburgh HI. 

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) Edinburgh HI Service Level Agreement discussions with NHS Lothian and National Services Directorate (NSD)

SNBTS HI to ensure appropriate funding is provided to NHS Lothian to enable cross-charging by SNBTS for all transplant work (asking for an increase of £121,063). This was approved by NHS Lothian and has been recommended to be taken forward on 8 April 2025, Dave Turner received an email from NSD querying changes to HI staffing being cross-charged to NHS Lothian to cover renal transplant work. Within the NSD transplant assessment for renal transplant work there is a provision for HI staffing, that no longer reflects the HI workforce employed by SNBTS to provide HI services. A business case to NSD has been completed by prioritisation by the National Specialist Services Committee (NSSC) on 17 December 2026.

On-call rotas

The consultant/principal clinical scientist rota supporting deceased donor kidney, Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney (SPK), islet and cardiac transplantation in Scotland continues as a 1:4. No issues with biomedical scientist/clinical scientist rota for on-call laboratory work.  Ann-Margaret Little has been replaced on this rota with Claire Walker, Principal Clinical Scientist in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde HI lab. There are no issues with Biomedical Scientist/Clinical Scientist rota for on-call lab work.

Donor Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing

Since April 2022, this service is commissioned and funded by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in England. In devolved areas of the UK, HI and microbiology laboratories are not funded centrally from NHSBT, but are obliged to sign a contract to agree to key performance indicators.

The key performance indicator for HLA types being reported within four hours of sample receipt (target = 90%).
Quarter 1 2025-26: 88% (Edinburgh) 100% (Glasgow).
Quarter 2 2025-26: 89% (Edinburgh) 88% (Glasgow).
Results have been reported to NHSBT.

Donor Characterisation Electronic Results Transfer (DCERT)

NHSBT are introducing electronic reporting of deceased donor HLA types to the Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation (OTDT) Directorate to avoid transcription errors. The latest available figures for anomalies in donor HLA typing show that no anomalies were identified post organ allocation in 2024. Roll-out of electronic reporting for both Glasgow and Edinburgh laboratories is now planned for January 2026. Edinburgh are validating a third-party piece of software to enable this electronic transfer.

Human Leukocyte Antigen-incompatible (HLAi) transplants facilitated by Imlifidase

Highly sensitised patients at both sites have had ‘unacceptable’ antigens removed to increase offers of HLA incompatible grafts that may require the use of imlifidase. The first imlifidase facilitated kidney transplant in Scotland went ahead in Edinburgh on 13 May 2025. There have been no further transplants since that time.

European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI) Conference 2026

This conference will be held in Edinburgh at the EICC between 21 and 24 April 2026. Dave Turner and Catherine Hastie are on the local organising committee. The abstract deadline is 15 December 2025.