City organ donations barely above one

The donation rate from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust averages little more than one per year.

Hospital chiefs are now urging people to discuss their final wishes with their loved ones. They released the figures in the hope more people will join the organ donor register – as 106 people from the city wait for a life-saving transplant.

Last year alone, seven patients from the city died while waiting for a donated organ that could have saved them.

West Yorkshire has one of the lowest sign-up rates to the organ donation register in the UK.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has set up a committee to try to increase awareness of transplantation and to boost the number of donors from the city's hospitals.

Clinical donation champion and ICU consultant anaesthetist Dr Paul Cramp attributes the poor rate to people not letting their loved ones know their wishes.

Mr Cramp said: "In Bradford this week there are more than 100 people awaiting a transplant which could save their lives.

"Last year, 34 patients from the city received the lifesaving operation but every year, across the UK, more than 1,000 people will die or become too ill before they receive one – last year seven patients from the city died while waiting for the transplant that never came.

"This week we would urge families to sit down and have a conversation about organ donation – don't put it off, let your loved ones know what you would like to happen after you die and if you want to donate make sure you sign up now to the organ donation register at www.organdonation.nhs.uk. This one act could potentially save the lives of up to nine people."

The latest figures reveal that in Bradford there are 98 people waiting for a kidney transplant, 51 of whom are from the Asian population. Two people are in need of a heart and lungs; three need a pancreas transplant and three are waiting for a new liver.

Consultant nephrologist, Dr Robin Jeffrey, who treats those renal patients on the transplant list, appealed for more members of the city's south Asian population to register and to also consider living-related transplants.

Mr Jeffrey said: "In Bradford over half of those waiting for a new kidney are from the south Asian population.

"The average waiting time for a new kidney is around three years but this can double for those of south Asian origin because of the difficulty of obtaining a good match.

"The way to rectify this difference is to have a larger number of Asian people donating their organs at death.

"I believe increased awareness and acceptance of organ donation in this community is crucial for our Asian patients."

Nationally, just 1.2 per cent of people from the south Asian community and 0.4 per cent of people from black communities have joined the NHS Organ Donor Register – yet patients from these groups are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant.

To join the organ donor register go to www.organdonation.

nhs.uk or call 0300 1232323.