The Donor Liaison Scheme

The Donor Liaison Scheme

The Donor Liaison Scheme is a national initiative funded by UK Transplant and managed by the local Trust. The concept of “in hospital education” is based on the success of similar posts in Spain where organ donation rates are three times greater in comparison with the rest of Europe. The United Kingdom continues to have one of the lowest donation rates for its population

The Donor Liaison Scheme purpose is:
  • To promote organ and tissue donation within the Trust
  • Identify all people within the hospital that could donate organs or tissues
  • Educate and train Trust staff to raise awareness of the potential for and benefits of donation
  • Ensure immediate and ongoing donor family support is available.

Increasing the profile of organ and tissue donation within the Trust is integral to increasing the number of people that have already saved and enhanced lives through the gift of donation. Working closely with the Donor Transplant Co-ordinators based at the New Royal Infirmary, Dr. Joyce Stuart, Consultant Clinical Lead – Donor Liaison Scheme and clinical staff from all disciplines, the Donor Liaison Scheme is tasked to facilitate the identification of potential multi organ and tissue donors. The strategy includes targeted educational initiatives in clinical areas where there is the potential to increase donation. The initial phase of the Scheme concentrated on the Intensive Care Units within LUHT expanding to engage Cardiology, Respiratory, Neurosciences and Stroke Services on both sites. Since commencing post in June the Donor Liaison Scheme has delivered formal presentations to 679 hospital staff. Information supporting donation has been included in Trust Induction and Clinical Update days and in the relative information of both intensive care units.

The introduction of the Potential Donor Audit devised by United Kingdom Transplant has replaced the audit of all ICU deaths previously undertaken for many years by the Donor Co-ordinators. The Potential Donor Audit was piloted within Lothian University Hospitals Trust and has been now been instigated nationally in all Intensive Care Units. This Audit will identify all potential donors in Intensive care and highlight missed donations and facilitates rapid changes in management to address further occurrence. The potential donor audit will expressly ask for details of refusal to proceed to organ donation in order to address specific reasons that relatives refuse to consider organ donation. Locally the audit will identify specific areas to target through education and development of local policies.

The Donor Liaison Scheme takes this opportunity to formally acknowledge the assistance and support of all the staff within the Trust, United Kingdom Transplant, The Scottish Transplant Co-ordinator Network, Scottish Blood Transfusion Service – Tissue Services and in particular the clinical and management staff in the Critical Care and Transplant Directorate.

Further information about transplantation

See the links at the foot of the Kidney Transplantation page in EdRenINFO. We produced the Transplant booklet, Photo-story, and other information.