Motorists ‘could double’ organ donor sign-up rate
A new pilot scheme encouraging new motorists to donate their organs could double the sign-up rate to the donor register.
National clinical director for transplantation Chris Rudge told the BBC he believed two million people a year could begin pledging to join the list following a shift to the driving licence application form.
At present would-be motorists are given the option of signing up but can skip over the question. From July they will have no choice, being required to answer of three options.
These are ‘yes I would like register on the NHS Organ Donor Register’; ‘I do not want to answer this question now’; and ‘I am already registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register’.
“Nobody’s going to be forced to make a decision. We don’t have a register of people who don’t want to,” Mr Rudge explained.
Around 90% of Britons agree with organ donation but only 27%, around 17.5 million people, are on the donor register.
A review in the last parliament ruled out moving towards ‘presumed consent’, where all are donors and must proactively opt out.
“We know the main reason people don’t put their names on the organ donor register is because they don’t get round to it,” Mr Rudge added.
“This is a way of encouraging people to think about the question and encourage them to say ‘yes I want to do it’ or ‘no, I’ll think about it another time’.”
