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Some of the images associated with the organ retention issues at Alder Hey Hopsital in Liverpool, UK

 
Link to Alan Milburn's [Secretary of State for Health] Speech to the House of Commons [UK Government] on the 30th of January 2001

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animated presentation of the words "Never Again!"

Affects of Organ Retention

Over the past three years many articles have appeared in the media and in medical journals blaming the furore over organ retention at Alder Hey hospital as having an adverse effect on organ transplants, causing the number of people willing to donate organs for transplantation to plummet. Many families felt that because they had quite justifiably raised serious concerns about what had happened to their children, they were being blamed for this.

A statement on the UK Transplant Website shows that this is not the case and that the attention brought to this issue has had the opposite affect. It redas as follows:

"... UK Transplant recorded an increase in donors aged under six(five in the year 2000, fourteen in 2001) and the publicity surrounding organ retention may have contributed to the increase in young donors because the issues were being highlighted so publicly".

"The NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR), which records details of people who have pledged to donate their organs after their death, was equally unaffected by Alder Hey. During February 2001 (immediately after the findings of the inquiry were published) significant increases were seen in the number of registrations to the ODR. During the following six months, the number of people who had joined the register has risen by a further 100,000 compared to the same period the previous year".

Figures show that betwee April the 1st, 2002, and 31st of March, 2003, the highest number of organ transplants for six years took place.

Over 1.2 million people added their names to the NHS Oran Donor register - that was the biggest increase for three years. There has also been a 52% increase in non-heartbeating donation, which means that more people than ever received transplants from these donors.

It also highlights the fact that public srveys carried out by the Department of Health show that the general public understands the difference between organ retention without consent and organ transplantation.

You can access this information on-line at:

http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/newsroom/policy_and_statements/statements/alder_hey_outcome.htm

This information shows that the negative reports about the affect of organ retention are totally without foundation and are misleading.

 

PITY II (Parents who have Interred Their Young Twice) is the parents' support group set up in the wake of the organ retention scandal
at Alder Hey Hospital (Liverpool, UK). It aims to provide self help support and advice to affected families.


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