Scottish Donation and Transplant Group written update: August 2024
Written updates from the meeting of the group held on 22 August 2024.
Deceased organ donation
Update given by:
- Susan Hannah, Regional Head of Nursing Organ Donation (Scotland Team), NHSBT
Donation performance April 2024 to June 2024
Last year our NHSBT performance target was 109 donors and actual 120. This is now the target set for this year April 2024 to March 2025 with a quarter one (Q1) performance target given of 28 donors.
From April 2024 to June 2024 the three months Q1 performance is the highest number of donors in the last five years with a total of 29 proceeding donors and one above the target.
Eligibility has an overall improvement from lowest of 58 to highest of 76. The donation after brain death (DBD) has small number variance in the last five years with one more donor than last year and donation after circulatory death (DCD) has improved the most from lowest number of seven and now highest donor number of 16.
| 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eligibility | 61 | 64 | 58 | 71 | 76 |
| DBD | 14 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| DCD | 2 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 16 |
| Total donors | 16 | 25 | 17 | 25 | 29 |
The referral rate to the Scotland organ donation service has consistently remained high in this three-month period with 97% and this is same number for UK average of all 12 organ donation teams.
The number of potential donor families approached for organ donation increased from 47 last year to 49 and 35 authorised (willing to donate) with a 71% combined authorisation rate (DBD and DCD). This is 11% increase from last year and above our 67% target and is 11% higher than UK average of 60%.
The most successful route of authorisation is expressed opt in.
| Families approached by authorisation group/ rate | |
|---|---|
| Expressed opt in | 30 – 27 authorised (90%) |
| Deemed authorisation | 10 – 7 authorised (70%) |
| Other authorisation | 3 – 1 authorised (33%) |
| ODR opt outs | 1 |
| Other opt outs | 5 |
| Total families approached | 49 – 36 authorised (71%) |
The Specialist Nurse (SN) team presence when approaching potential organ donor families is one of the lowest teams with a combined rate of 90% (DBD and DCD) in comparison to UK average of 91%. The main reason for this is consultant preference not to approach with the SN which has been more evident with DBD potential donors with only 81% and an improvement with potential DCD donors higher at 96%.
Challenges UK-wide remain with continued reduced Neurological Death Testing (NDT) rate in DBD donors. The UK average is 76% however the Scotland rate for Q1 is much improved and one of the highest teams with 93%.
The Scotland team in recent months has been working very closely with the NHS Board Communications, Scottish Government marketing, Donation Committee Chairs and Recipient Centres with promotional planning and awareness raising of organ and tissue donation. This would include the PJ foundation charity which offers support to both donor and recipient families and who are keen to promote awareness of organ and tissue donation initiatives. This involves supporting the Scotland team, NHS Scotland colleagues, donor families and recipients with climbing Ben Nevis with UK initiative of turning the five peaks pink across the UK for donation week commencing Monday 23 September.
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