NICE consults on improving consent rates for organ donation

Medical staff should consider asking terminally ill patients to consent to donating their organs before they die, according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

The rate of consent for families of those who are clinically dead but whose organs are kept viable by ventilators also needs to be substantially increased to reduce the number of people dying while waiting for a transplant.

Launching its draft guidelines on improving donor identification and consent rates for deceased organ donation, NICE has recommended that all hospitals put in place policies for …