NEWS | Wednesday, 07 January 2009

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The sale of organs from the British NHS to foreign beneficiaries has courted controversy after 259 British patients were denied life-saving transplants.
Some 50 livers from British donors were given to private patients from Cyprus, Greece and Malta last year, after the figures were uncovered by Freedom of Information requests.
The documents show that overseas patients paid some €75,000 to receive transplants from NHS organ donors.
Two of the main NHS hospitals offering organ transplants to people abroad is King’s College in London, which gave livers from British donors to 19 overseas patients last year, and the Royal Free in Hampstead, which gave four.
The documents show that 40 livers were given to people from Greece and Cyprus last year, with a further three going to Malta and the Czech Republic. The rest went to people from countries outside the EU.
Livers can be given to non-Europeans only if they are deemed to be not of good enough quality for British patients. Overall, almost 8,000 Britons are on transplant waiting lists and some hospitals are giving them priority.
Potential foreign clients are told the hospital has the largest children’s liver transplant programme in Europe and the biggest UK adult liver transplant programme.
The service is run by renowned liver transplant surgeon Professor Nigel Heaton, who performed a liver transplant on the footballer George Best.
The issue of whether a scarce organ should be given to someone overseas is a dilemma that has divided transplants doctors. Some believe it is their duty to treat needy patients from elsewhere in Europe, whereas others believe the organ pool is a scarce resource created by the generosity of the British public for its own citizens.
European laws on the freedom of movement of goods and services give patients the right to seek treatment in any of the member states.
Britain is not obliged to treat these patients, however, and the decision is left to individual hospital trusts.
Britain also has no national policy on whether organs should be given to foreign patients, who pay around €75,000 for a liver transplant. The money is shared between the transplant surgeon, who may get around €20,000, and the hospital trust.
The money does not pay for the organ itself, but for hospital accommodation and pre- and post-operative care.

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