New statistics from NHSBT show that at end of December 2017, 634 people in the UK had donated a kidney as a non-directed altruistic donor (86 in 2017 alone). More than 120 of these donors facilitated chains, enabling 2 or 3 transplants to take place which may not otherwise have been possible. Congratulations and thank you to all involved.
In order to make the most of these very valuable donations, from January 2018, all non-directed kidneys will automatically be used in chains, unless there is a high-priority patient match on the waiting list. This will mean than non-directed kidneys ‘trigger’ more transplants wherever possible.