Introduction: Covid-19 had an unprecedented effect on UK donation services, with all types of organ donation falling in the year 2020-21. The latest NHSBT activity report shows live donation numbers have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. There are many potential benefits of live versus deceased donation, including increased graft longevity, reduced waiting times (thus reducing dialysis requirements) and easier local service planning. Therefore it seems increasingly important to ensure that the live donation experience is as positive as it can be, such that the word-of-mouth message helps to recruit potential donors.
Methods: Numerical scores and comments around patient experience relating to various steps in their donation journeys were collected for the years 2015-2022. Both quantitative and qualitative data from these questionnaires were analysed for trends, with an interim presentation of findings in 2019.
Results: Overall, standards of care remained impressively high despite pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, notably there were no live kidney donations at all in our centre in 2020. In 2021/2022, patient experience scores fell as they did not feel involved in the timing of their surgery and had no peri-operative access to the patient hotel (which was previously a very well-reviewed element). In contrast, following poor feedback regarding ward stay presented in 2019, post-operative care was moved from a general surgical to a specialist ward and scores in this domain improved for 2021-22.
Discussion: Donor feedback is hugely valuable as pressures on the transplant service remain very high post-pandemic and live donors are a significant, and often more successful, part of the organ donation population. The live donor service relies on the beneficence of healthy individuals to put themselves through a not insignificant procedure. Of note, donor demographics at our centre appear to have changed post-pandemic with a significantly smaller portion of donors not knowing their recipient. It therefore seems paramount to collect and act on patient feedback, to improve the donation experience and inspire more live donations.