Top hospital left relying on charity cash for transplant ops as NHS refuses to stump up cash
Papworth only got funding for 10 ops, and now need a 'business case' to be allowed to do more ops
A TOP heart hospital is having to rely on charity cash to fund pioneering transplants.
Papworth is leading the way in operations with non-beating hearts, but the process costs an extra £30,000.
The NHS paid for ten but refuses to fund more until they are sure of a “business case”.
Former heart czar Prof Roger Boyle branded the move “ludicrous”. He said: “It seems inconceivable that this type of transplantation can just be stopped — patients will die.
“There is a huge cost attached to keeping very sick patients for weeks or months in hospital waiting for a heart transplant. There is such a dire shortage of hearts, I can’t see how this can’t be funded.”
Surgeon Stephen Large added: “We can’t just stop saving lives because NHS Blood and Transplant only funded ten ops. Hearts that could be used would go to waste and lives lost.”
Transplants usually see beating hearts taken from brain-dead donors.
With the new technique, non-beating hearts are restarted and monitored inside the donor for 50 minutes to check they are in a condition to be removed and used.
The Cambridgeshire hospital believes that because it makes more hearts available, the number of UK transplants could double from 130 to 260.
Four have already taken place at Harefield in West London.
NHS Blood and Transplant said: “We are working with the hospitals to quickly pull together the evidence. If the data gathered shows the procedure to be safe, a business case will go for a funding decision.”
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