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Transplant Ban: No NHS Organs For Private Ops
Posted on: Thursday - Jul 30, 2009 |
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| The announcement comes after an investigation last year by the Mail On Sunday which found surgeons could make £20,000 by operating on private patients from abroad.
Liver transplants were being carried out on private Greek and Cypriot patients despite 400 Britons being on the NHS waiting list.
Experts called for the practice to end because it would affect public confidence in the transplant service.
According to the newspaper, 111 liver transplants were performed in the UK on EU patients from outside Britain between 2003 and 2007.
The Government is still to launch a "directed organ donation" system, which allows donors to choose who should receive their organs.
Last year Gordon Brown supported a "presumed consent" system, where everyone is considered a patient unless they opt out, which would increase donor numbers.
The UK Organ Donation Task Force rejected the PM's calls, feeling that people should be a registered donor if their organs are to be used in transplants.
Professor Nigel Heaton, the doctor at the centre of the argument, was George Best's transplant surgeon.
He was criticised in 2002 for his decision to give Best a liver transplant, even though the former footballer ignored warnings to give up alcohol.
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