Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will provide a breakdown by age of the average waiting time for a liver transplant.
Answer
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for organ donation in the United Kingdom and manages the NHS Organ Donor Register and national transplant waiting list. NHSBT publishes data on the transplant waiting list by organ at the following link: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/about-organ-donation/statistics-about-organ-donation/ NHS England commissions adult liver transplantation as a highly specialised service from six providers across the country. NHS England is revising the Adult Liver Transplantation Service Specification to strengthen requirements for consistent and equitable access to assessment and transplantation across England. This includes the development of referral networks linking local liver services with transplant centres and expectations for timely assessment and access to specialist advice. The revised specification retains the existing eligibility criteria. This complements wider work led by NHS England and NHSBT in collaboration with the Department to strengthen transplant services.
Verdict: RED (20/100)
The question asked for the average liver transplant waiting time and a breakdown by age group. The reply gives neither figure. It refers the reader to NHS Blood and Transplant's published waiting-list statistics by organ, which is the right source but not an answer in itself. Someone reading this would still need to look up the figures or ask again for the specific numbers.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the average waiting time for a liver transplant, broken down by age group. | Partially Addressed | Hedged | The reply does not give an average liver transplant waiting time or any age-group breakdown. It only points to NHSBT's published waiting-list statistics by organ (statement 2), which is the right dataset but a referral rather than an answer, so the item is touched on but not substantively answered. |