The Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019: qualitative research - October 2019 to January 2020

Executive Summary

This report forms part of the baseline information underpinning the five year Monitoring and Evaluation Plan of ‘The Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019’ (hereafter referred to as ‘the Act’, ‘the law’ or ‘the legislation’). The Act introduces a system of 'deemed authorisation' for organ and tissue donation for transplantation. This means that if someone dies in circumstances where they potentially could become a donor, and they have not recorded a decision on donation, they would be presumed to be willing to donate unless their family provides information that the potential donor was unwilling to do so.

This report presents the findings from qualitative research undertaken between October 2019 and January 2020, with 63 NHS staff involved in organ and tissue donation across Scotland (via 28 one-to-one interviews and 9 focus groups). Report findings focus on NHS staff’s awareness of, knowledge about, and attitudes toward the Act, organ and tissue donation, current donation procedures, changes that will be made to this process once the law goes into effect, as well as training sessions to support NHS staff’s delivery of these changes.

Note that the findings presented here do not cover all aspects of the Act or the infrastructure to support it, and some discrepancies may arise between staff views in advance of the Act’s implementation and the exact stipulations of the legislation.