§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is considering additional action, apart from the current campaign, to increase the number of kidney donors; if he will indicate the current supply of kidney organs and the possible expansion of the supply of such organs; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John Patten[pursuant to his reply, 19 July 1985]: New initiatives to promote the organ donor card and to increase the number of donor organs becoming available for transplantation are being taken all the time; for example, several of the major clearing banks and building societies have recently agreed to display posters and dispense cards.
I am advised that on certain occasions a constraining factor may be the reluctance of some doctors to initiate donation procedures, and the Chief Medical Officer has recently written to the directors of renal transplant units asking them to review their relationships with those hospital departments within their catchment areas which are most likely to have potential organ donors.
The number of kidney transplant operations performed in the United Kingdom during the first six months of this year, according to provisional data supplied by the United Kingdom Transplant Service, was 643, and our efforts to increase the supply of donor kidneys are continuing.