Organ donors to be recruited via digital TV

The red button on the digital television remote control is set to become the latest channel for recruiting desperately needed organ donors.

The BBC’s DoNation season, due to run for a week from 22 August will highlight the benefits of organ transplantation with a series of programmes on BBC1, the internet and the corporation’s radio stations.

Digital satellite viewers who wish to sign up as organ donors will be urged to press the red button during shows. The on-screen form will taken them through the multi-step registration process and their name will be added automatically to the NHS Organ Donor Register.

A BBC spokesperson said work was still being done on the ‘red button’ registration process to ensure that viewers did not sign others up without their consent.  Safeguards would be in place to ensure that no one could sign up by pressing their red button accidentally.

The DoNation season programmes will include a Casualty/Holby City special where viewers will be invited to vote by phone to determine the outcome of an organ donation storyline in the popular hospital dramas.

In addition to the programmes and donor sign-up facility, there will be a website, www.bbc.co.uk/donation (not yet live), that will offer an interactive journey through the issues surrounding organ donation, and include testimonies from doctors and donor families. The site will also include a link to the NHS register and a facility to send e-cards to friends and relatives to inform them of a registration.

There is a critical shortage of donated organs. According to the kidney patients’ charity, the National Kidney Federation, more than 7,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant to save or dramatically improve their life.

But the shortage of donors means that only about 2,700 transplants take place each year. Every year nearly 400 people die while waiting and many others lose their lives before they even get on to the transplant list. Figures from the BBC suggest that while nine out of 10 people support organ donation in principle, only two out of 10 have actually signed up.

The BBC says there is no target figure for boosting registration during the campaign. "The main aim is to raise awareness and answer queries people have about organ donation," the spokesperson said.