The latest Organ Donation and Transplantation Activity Report published by NHS Blood and Transplant reveals that three out of ten patients on the UK’s active kidney transplant waiting list at the end of March 2015 were from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
However, only 26% of patients who received a kidney transplant during 2014/15 were from these communities. On average, they will wait almost a year longer for a transplant than a white patient.
Last year only 553 people from BAME communities received a lifesaving kidney transplant, despite there being 1,797 BAME people currently waiting for such an organ.
Kidneys are allocated according to many factors, with blood and tissue type among the most important and matching is likely to be better when the ethnicity of the donor and recipient are closer. As only a small percentage (6%) of deceased donors are from BAME communities, this can delay a suitably matched kidney being found for BAME patients.
Last year in the UK, the number of deceased organ donors from BAME communities increased slightly, but the number of people overall who donated organs after their death fell for the first time in 11 years. The number of deceased donor transplants has decreased from 4,655 in 2013/14 to 4,431 in 2014/15. This is a 5% decrease on last year and means that 224 fewer people received an organ transplant.
There were 1,282 deceased donors in the UK. Only 80 of them were from BAME communities. Of those:
- 32 were Asian
- 20 were Black
- 28 were from other ethnic backgrounds
Figures from NHS Blood and Transplant reveal that families are more likely to agree to organ donation going ahead if they were aware of their loved ones decision to be a donor.
In the past year there has been a slight increase in consent among BAME families. 36.5 per cent approached about organ donation said yes in 2015/15 compared to 35 per cent a year ago. Although this is encouraging progress, this figure still lags behind the consent rate seen in white families which currently stands at 60.7 per cent.
Sally Johnson, NHS Blood and Transplant’s Director of Organ Donation and Transplantation, said: “Patients from Black, Asian and some ethnic minority communities are more likely to need an organ transplant than the rest of the population as they are more susceptible to illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes and certain forms of hepatitis, all of which may result in organ failure and the need for a lifesaving transplant.
“Although 28 percent of patients currently waiting for a transplant are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, only six per cent of those who donated their organs after death in 2014/2015 were BAME. The figures simply do not stack up. I urge people from BAME communities to donate their organs when and if they can. Until they do so, people from their own communities will wait longer for a transplant and may die before a donor organ becomes available.
“The decreases we can see across all types of organ transplant in the UK this year will lead to more deaths if we do not reverse this trend going forward. We know there is a combination of reasons for the decreases, but we cannot hope to save more lives unless UK citizens talk about organ donation with their families and agree to donate if ever they are asked.”
