A change in Scotland's organ donation laws has been credited for patients receiving a record number of heart transplants this year.
Dr Jane Cannon, Consultant Transplant Cardiologist at the Golden Jubilee Hospital, said the introduction of the opt-out system had "absolutely" contributed to surgeons being able to perform 21 transplants this year.
While numbers fluctuate, it is thought to be the highest number ever carried out in Scotland.
Dr Cannon said the use of intensive care beds for Covid patients at other UK hospitals that perform transplants had also led to more donor hearts being transported to the Golden Jubilee hospital for transplant.
Scotland's new organ donor system came into force on March 21.
Under the new law, which was introduced in Wales in 2015, anyone age 16 and over is considered a possible donor if they die in circumstances in which they could donate and have not registered an objection.
The latest figures show over half of people (54%) in Scotland have now registered their donation decision – 51.5% to be a donor and 2.8% choosing to opt out.
READ MORE: 'It's a miracle to be alive', says Scots who shares birthday with pioneering service
England switched to an opt-out system in 2020, although Scotland was first tp agree to the change, following a failed bill by former Labour MSP Anne McTaggart in 2016.
The SNP government instead launched its own consultation before publishing a revised bill in 2019, which was delayed in its introduction by the pandemic.
Figures show six heart transplants were carried out from April to April over 2008-2009, 15 from 2016-2017 and 20 from 2020-2021 with 21 already performed this year.
READ MORE: How islet transplants are helping people at risk of falling asleep at the wheel
Dr Cannon said: "I think obviously the Scottish Government has changed the law so now it's an opt-out system and the availability of donor hearts has increased.
"It's a bit of a coincidence that after the law changed we do a record number of transplants. Undoubtedly it is having an impact and we will see if that is maintained.
"From our own personal experience, yes I would say that is has made a change already.
"There is always a need for more organs - the demand always outweighs the supply but there are three tiers of waiting list. There is the routine list, the urgent list and the super urgent list.
"If you were on the routine list at home you could wait years on the list to get a suitable donor heart, whereas now, we are transplanting more patients on the routine list than every before so patients are generally waiting a shorter time but that does depend on your blood group, your gender, your size etc."
She said pressures on other hospitals which carry out transplants caused by Covid had led to more organs being taken to the Golden Jubilee hospital.
The hospital does not take general medical admissions or accident and emergency and has been largely protected from the pandemic.
"If other units are not able to use organs because their ICU beds are full, they would have to turn the organ down and offer it out to other units.
"We treat patients with cardiac complications of Covid but we can't complain compared to the stories of other hospitals."
READ MORE: Scots study hopes for 'silent' disease that has 90% mortality rate
She said relatively new equipment like the organ care system, known as 'heart in a box' was also allowing more hearts to be transported from further afield.
Traditionally a donor heart was put in a box with ice which means the time before transplantation was limited.
New methods allow the heart to be perfused with the donor's blood meaning that it's safe for a longer travel time.
"Before we might have to turn them down because they were having to travel too far."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel