Fit for the future

Originally, the Register tracked the success of campaigns asking people to sign up as donors. However, following the 2004 Human Tissue Act, and similar legislation later in Scotland, it took on an operational role it was never designed for.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) was formed in 2005 from the merger of the National Blood Service and UK Transplant. They wanted to make it easier for people to sign up, register their preferences or nominate others to make decisions for them. In addition, they needed to plan for Wales moving to an ‘opt-out’ scheme from December 2015.

So NHSBT decided to rebuild the register and chose us as their partner. The new system would allow for both opt-out and opt-in schemes to run in tandem and also make it easier to use.

Aaron Powell is Chief Digital Officer at NHS Blood and Transplant. “The NEC team had experience with similar programmes of this scale. Their software also gave us all the benefits of a bespoke development, like flexibility, but with the added confidence of a fully-supported and proven system.”

In collaboration with the four UK governments, NHS Blood and Transplant launched the new Register in July 2015.

People can now register as donors, log more detail about preferences, opt out or nominate someone else to make decisions.

It also means that specialist nurses can see the full history of person’s registration and preferences. This enables better conversations with families making difficult decisions.

Find out more about our work in health registries.