Papers
Lifeline Wales: experience with a computerised kidney doner registry
BMJ 1994; 308 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.308.6920.30 (Published 01 January 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;308:30
- J R Salaman,
- P J A Griffin,
- J Haines
- Department of Surgery and Transplantation, Royal Infirmary, Cardiff CF2 1SZ.
- Accepted 12 August 1993
In the United Kingdom about 60 people per million of the population develop chronic renal failure each year and are accepted on to dialysis programmes, but barely half will receive kidney transplants.1 The shortage of donors is aggravated by the reluctance of relatives to consent to donation in one third of cases.2,3 Relatives seem unable to give consent when the donor's wishes are not known. To address this problem various attempts have been made within the United Kingdom to record the wishes of potential donors. Computer registries can retain such information long term and can operate as an extension to the donor card scheme without a change in the law. Lifeline Wales is the largest such scheme in the United Kingdom, and …