HEALTH NATIONALISM

Many media outlets are reporting today that the UK Government are considering a ban on foreign nationals having transplant operations as private patients here in the UK. These include The Press Association, The Mirror, and The Sun, while The BBC more accurately and fairly reported that "The government says it will ban all private transplants of organs from dead donors in the UK" rather than singling out foreign nationals for criticism.

It follows an 'independent' report, written by Elisabeth Buggins, former chairwoman of the Organ Donation Taskforce, and commissioned by former Health Secretary Alan Johnson, to look at the issue of non-UK nationals coming to the UK for transplants, including funding arrangements.

It is reported that the review is a response to "an investigation last year by the Mail On Sunday which found surgeons could make £20,000 by operating on private patients from abroad.Liver transplants were being carried out on private Greek and Cypriot patients despite 400 Britons being on the NHS waiting list. Experts called for the practice to end because it would affect public confidence in the transplant service".

Will this witchhunt against 'foreigners' and 'immigrants' and the EU never end? Now it's health issues that have become embroiled in this nationalist nonsense. I notice the report, having the supposed purpose "to optimise the availability of organs for transplant for NHS patients" failed to consider the numbers of foreign-donated organs available to UK patients! I remember the case of the little girl from Hull who had a heart transplant after topping the European Transplant waiting list, the source of her new heart was not disclosed. I wonder how many UK patients benefit from this? It might make more sense to co-operate with other countries, as it is reported that the UK has one of the lowest organ donation rates in Western Europe, so long as money doesn't come into the equation.

This report is just an increasingly weak Government running scared of what they think the majority of the public are saying, and responding to obsessive and narrow-minded media, who twist very important issues in order to mislead the public into becoming as xenophobic as they are.

I welcome a possible outcome that results in organs being given to those in greatest need, not to those with the ability to pay, and hopefully that will be the outcome. But this report, by ignoring the numbers of UK patients receiving foreign-donated organs, fails to address the question of maximising donated organs available to UK patients, and if this Protectionist measure sparks a tit-for-tat response from other countries, it could be the seriously ill here in the UK that lose out.