Government

Opt-out organ donation: organs and tissues excluded from the new system

Department of Health and Social Care

Opened: 29 April 2019
Closes: 22 July 2019

This consultation is to ask you if the government is excluding the right organs and tissues from opt-out organ donation. We would like you to answer five questions about what you think should happen.

The government recently passed a law to change the rules for organ donation in England from 2020. The law introduced a system commonly called “opt-out” or “deemed consent”.

From 2020, everyone in England over the age of 18 will be considered to be in favour of donating their organs and tissue after death unless they:

• have said they do not want to donate (opted out)
• have appointed someone to decide for them after death
• are in an excluded group

When the law was passing through Parliament, the government agreed that the law would only apply to routine transplants, and not novel or rare transplants.

The government proposes that novel or rare transplants will still require express consent. This means you or someone representing you must explicitly give permission for your organs or tissues to be donated for novel or rare transplants. Such transplants also cover what is called Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP). This is when tissues, cells and genes are manipulated in a laboratory for treatment of a disease or injury. Some of the tissues and cells come from deceased donors.

This consultation is to ask you if the government is excluding the right organs and tissues. They would like you to answer five questions about what you think should happen.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/opt-out-organ-donation-organs-and-tissues-excluded-from-the-new-system

Your thoughts on ‘online consultations’ – an alternative way to have a consultation from your GP.

NHS England

Opens 8 May 2018
Closes 15 June 2018

NHS England is supporting local NHS GP practices to offer their patients alternative ways to have a consultation with a GP or other practice-based health professional online via the internet, rather than waiting for the next available appointment to attend in person – we are referring to this as ‘online consultations’.

Online consultations are a way for patients to contact their GP practice without having to wait on the phone or take time out to come into the practice. Using a smartphone, tablet or computer, you can contact your practice about a new problem or an ongoing issue. You can ask questions or tell your GP about your symptoms. The practice will ensure your contact is dealt with by the right person in the team, helping ensure you are served as quickly and appropriately as possible. Sometimes this will mean you will need a phone call with the GP or nurse, or an appointment at the practice, and this will be arranged as usual.

NOTE: Online consultations are an alternative service – it is still possible to do other things on the practice website such as seeing test results and your medical record, ordering a repeat prescription or booking an appointment.

Places that are using online consultations already have found a number of benefits:

• Patients were able to get a quicker response, rather than waiting for an appointment in person
• It is more convenient as patients they do not have to travel to their GP practice or wait for the next available appointment.
• GPs were able to provide more appointments for patients, offering the same level of consultation, diagnosis and necessary actions (such as referral or a prescription) as patients would get in a face to face appointment;

It doesn’t matter if you have not used online consultations yourself – your views are still of interest to the NHS. THIS IS NOT ABOUT HOSPITAL APPOINTMENTS.

Your views are valuable to us and we would appreciate it if you could find the time to complete this survey by Friday 15 June 2018. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Insight collected from this survey, along with other forms of engagement, will be analysed by NECS (North of England Commissioning Support) on behalf of NHS England. This insight will help determine the most appropriate support and resources needed for both practices and patients to adopt online consultations as an enhancement to currently available online services.

You can find out much more about the programme on the NHS England website.

Give Your Views

Online Survey

A consultation on extending legal rights to have for personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets

Department of Health and Social Care

Opens: 6 April 2018
Closes: 8 June 2018

Within the NHS, there is an ever-growing shift towards personalisation of health and care. It is clear that choice and personalisation matter to people; uptake of personalised health and care plans within the NHS has increased annually since implementation, and evidence suggests that by providing individuals with more choice and control over how their individual needs are met, outcomes often improve, satisfaction often increases, and the package of care can often be delivered in a more cost-effective manner.

Personal health budgets are the current mechanism to deliver this. Currently however, only certain groups have a right to personal health budgets. This consultation therefore exlplores extending this right to other groups who we believe could benefit from a more personalised approach to their health and care.

There is also ongoing work across the country, looking into how personal health budgets and personal budgets in social care, can be aligned into a single, integrated, personal budget, wrapped around the individuals holistic health and social care needs. This consultation also therefore seeks your views on extending specific groups rights to an integrated personal budget, and also explores the potential to incorporate additional funding streams into that budget, if the individual so wishes.

Give Your Views

Online Survey

Introducing ‘opt-out’ consent for organ and tissue donation in England

Department of Health and Social Care

Opens: 12 December 2017
Closes: 6 March 2018

Summary

The government wants views from as many people as possible on plans to make it easier for people to give consent to be an organ donor.

Consultation description

The Department of Health and Social Care have launched a consultation about organ and tissue donation. The government wants to know what people think about proposed changes in which people are considered willing to be an organ donor after their death, unless they have ‘opted out’.

They want to find out what people think of how the changes to the system should be made, and what else they think the government needs to consider.

The defining issues of the new system are:

• how much say families have in their deceased relative’s decision to donate their organs
• when exemptions to ‘opt-out’ would be needed, and what safeguards would be necessary
• how a new system might affect certain groups depending on age, disability, race or faith

Documents

Consultation on introducing ‘opt-out’ consent for organ and tissue donation in England
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/introducing-opt-out-consent-for-organ-and-tissue-donation-in-england/consultation-on-introducing-opt-out-consent-for-organ-and-tissue-donation-in-england HTML

Quick Read: organ and tissue donation consultation
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/introducing-opt-out-consent-for-organ-and-tissue-donation-in-england/quick-read-organ-and-tissue-donation-consultation HTML

Impact Assessment: organ donation opt-out
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/666518/Organ_Donation_Opt-Out_Consultation_Impact_Assessment.pdf PDF, 707KB, 24 pages

Have your say on organ donation

https://engage.dh.gov.uk/organdonation/

Department of Health and Social Care 12 December 2017
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/introducing-opt-out-consent-for-organ-and-tissue-donation-in-england