NHS organs donated to foreign patients

[Northerner]

One of Britain?s leading hospitals transplanted 19 livers into foreign recipients over two years.
Four years ago a Government-commissioned review recommended that private patients should be banned from receiving NHS organs after fears were raised about foreigners jumping the queue.
However, since then London's King's College Hospital, Europe's biggest organ transplant centre, has given livers to 19 patients from Greece, Cyprus, Kuwait, Libya and Dubai.
Simon Bramhall, a consultant transplant surgeon at Birmingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and member of the Liver Advisory Group, questioned the practice.
He told The Sunday Times: "There are not enough donors and too many NHS-entitled recipients to give the organs away."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9950874/NHS-organs-donated-to-foreign-patients.html

 

[Hazel]

that surely is just plain wrong

 

[LeeLee]

That should only happen if there are no other suitable recipients within a travelling distance that allows for the time frame for safe transplantation. Let's hope the investigation shows that to be the case here.

 

[trophywench]

I was thinking that LeeLee - if no NHS patients 'matched' then otherwise the organs would have gone to waste, which is just plain stupid.