Here are the addresses (URLs) for the Department of Health Press Release above:

The first is the Central Office of Information source for all Government
Departments' Press Releases:
http://www.nds.coi.gov.uk/coi/coipress.nsf/
Then click on D or scan down to Department of Health

More directly for the Department of Health only then for Index
http://www.doh.gov.uk/newsdesk/index.html
or
http://www.doh.gov.uk/newsdesk/recent/4-naa-27022001.html
for the above Press Release 2001.

For those who do not use the WWW then here is the article which is
Crown Copyright the Department of Health

Tuesday 27th February 2001

NEW DRIVE TO DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF REGISTERED ORGAN DONORS

Health Secretary Alan Milburn pledges unprecedented effort to improve transplant
services.

The country's leading experts in transplant services are meeting today to agree
a joint approach to improve organ and tissue donation and transplant rates as
part of a £3 million plan. The Secretary of State also announced his intention
to establish a new set of national standards to improve services for 30,000
kidney patients.

Latest figures show that the number of transplant operations in the early
part of this year is the same as last year and the number of donor
registrations increased in February despite recent concerns. The meeting
takes place against a background of a 10 year international decline in the
number of transplant operations, in part due to the reduction of deaths in
road traffic accidents. To address current trends experts have pledged to:


* Double the number of people on the organ donation register from
eight million to 16 million by 2010.
* Develop a National Service Framework (NSF) for patients with kidney
failure to establish national standards and improve services.
* Increase the kidney transplant rate by almost 100 per cent by 2005
* Increase heart and lung transplants and liver transplants by 10 per
cent by 2005
* Establish a new national consultative body to consider and
offer advice on all transplant issues.

Mr Milburn said:

"Today's meeting marks the start of an unprecedented national effort to
improve transplant services and increase the number of transplants carried
out.

"The meeting agreed the importance of doubling the number of registered
organ donors in order to improve the available research and available
organs for transplant.

"We need to ensure the public are better informed and better able to give
their consent; staff are better trained and higher standards of service are
set in this vital area of work. We will continue to work together to
improve these services which genuinely save lives.

" The organ transplant service depends entirely on the generosity of donors
and their families. The circumstances are by definition tragic. And yet,
from such an event an unselfish act helps others. I want to express my
personal respect and gratitude for those who make this life-saving gift.

"The new Renal Services NSF will be developed with the help of health and
social care professionals and managers, service users, carers, partner
agencies and other advocates. It will be the blueprint for national
standards and services that will improve treatment and care for the 30,000
patients in the UK on dialysis or living with a kidney transplant.

Mr Milburn continued:

"This Government recognises the difficulties for kidney patients and the
inadequate service they have endured as a result of decades of neglect and
under investment.

"More work is needed. It is difficult to think of any other field of
medicine in which advances in treatment have been more dramatic than in
renal services - successes which mean more people can have effective
treatment. Our National Service Framework will ensure that the treatment
patients receive will reach the highest standards across the country.


NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. Mr Milburn held the meeting with a clinicians, business leaders and trade
unions to discuss organ and tissue donation. The meeting took place against
a background of comments suggesting a decline in the number of donors and
transplant operations following publication of the Alder Hey report. Latest
figure show that there has been no negative effect on organ transplantation
rates and there have been six times the normal number of requests for
information about organ donation.

2. List of those invited to the meeting:

Professor Magdi Yacoub, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Ms Sue Sutherland, Chief Executive, UK Transplant
Mr Chris Rudge, Medical Director, UK Transplant
Mr Phil Hatton, Transplant Support Network
Mrs Janet Dacombe , Pity II (Alder Hey parent)
Mr Max Gabe-Wilkinson OBE, Chairman, Transplants in Mind (TIME)
Dr John Evans, Chairman, British Organ Donor Society (BODY)
Mr Nigel Hughes, Chief Executive, British Liver Trust
Mr Austin Donohoe, Chairman, Renal Alliance
Mr Timothy F Statham OBE, National Kidney Federation
Professor Gwyn Williams, President, The Renal Association
Dr John Lilleyman, President, Royal College of Pathologists
Miss Pam Buckley, Chair, UK Transplant Co-ordinators Association
Mr Antony J Hooker, Transplant Co-ordinator
Mrs Beverley Cornforth, Transplant Co-ordinator
Dr Michael Wilkes, Ethics Committee, British Medical Association
Ms Christine Hancock, General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing
Mr John Armitage, President, British Association for Tissue Banking
Professor J Andrew Bradley, President, British Transplantation Society
Professor Sir Peter J Morris, Chair, UKT Kidney Advisory Group
Sir Barry Jackson, President, Royal College of Surgeons
Mr John Wallwork, Chair, UKT Cardiothoracic Advisory Group
Professor Paul McMaster, Chair, UKT Liver Advisory Group
Dr Peter Hutton, President, Royal College of Anaesthetistis
Mr Giles Morgan, Intensive Care Society
Rajesh Kalhan, Director, Confederation of Indian Organisations
Mr William Trant, Director, West Indian Standing Conference
Hament Patel, SAMEC Trust
Mr Nick Turkentine, Head of Charity Affairs, National Kidney Research Fund
Dr Ruth Warwick, lead consultant, donor care, London Cord Bank
David Yelland, Editor of The Sun
Representative of the Patient Liaison Group of the RC Path
Ms Elizabeth Fothergill, CEO Pennine Healthcare, on behalf of ABHI
Mrs Jane Pearson/Ms Heather Stone, Tissue Co-ordinator, London & SE Tissue
Services
Ms Esther Ranzen
Alan and Margaret Poulton - recipient family
Mr and Mrs Eddy Crouth - donor family
Mr Digby Emson, Pharmacy Superintendent, Boots the Chemist Ltd
Ms Colette Graham, Head of Communications, Centrica Financial Services
Mr Ian Bogle, Chairman, BMA
Mr Nicholas Wopshott, Editor, The Times (Saturday edition)
Mr David Smerdon, Chair, UKT Cornea Advisory Group
Mr Hilary Benn MP
Dr Susan Fuggle

3. Kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs, pancreas, small bowel, corneas, heart
valves and bone can all be transplanted. Skin can be used to treat patients
with severe burns.

4. Media copies only of the discussion document Organ and Tissue
Transplantation: A Plan for the Future, are available from 020 7210 5230.