ETHAN COLLINS celebrated his first birthday last month in the hospital ward where he has spent all of his life.

His doctors say he will die within weeks if an organ donor is not found to give him a liver and intestine.

Donna Browne and Stuart Collins, his parents, are so frantic they have made a plea on Facebook, the social networking website, asking for as many people as possible to register as organ donors.

Ethan, who is being treated at Booth Hall children’s hospital in Manchester, is just one of almost 8,000 British patients now waiting for organs.

Despite the scarcity of organs, however, it now appears that British patients are in competition with people from overseas for organs that were donated in the UK.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that in the past two years 50 British organs have been given to overseas patients in private operations at NHS hospitals costing about £75,000 each.

While Browne is sympathetic to the plight of the patients from Greece, Cyprus and Malta who travel to Britain for transplants, she is concerned that an organ that could save her son might be destined for a patient from outside the UK.

“If I found out that someone from another country had got one and it could have been my son, I wouldn’t be very happy,” said Browne, from Whitefield, Greater Manchester.

One of the main NHS hospitals offering organ transplants to people abroad is King’s College in London. In advertises its service as part of its King’s International & Private Patient Services wing.

Potential foreign clients are told that the hospital has the largest children’s liver transplant programme in Europe and the biggest UK adult liver transplant programme.

The service is run by the renowned liver transplant surgeon Professor Nigel Heaton, who performed a liver transplant on the footballer George Best and is assisted by six consultant transplant surgeons, eight paediatric liver medicine consultants and six adult liver medicine consultants.

The promotional literature does not make clear, however, that British donors will be providing many of the organs.

The issue of whether a scarce organ should be given to someone overseas is a dilemma that has divided tranplants doctors. Some believe it is their duty to treat needy patients from elsewhere in Europe, whereas others believe the organ pool is a scarce resource created by the generosity of the British public for its own citizens.

European laws on the freedom of movement of goods and services give patients the right to seek treatment in any of the member states. Britain is not obliged to treat these patients, however, and the decision is left to individual hospital trusts.

Doctors and patient groups point out that, while the supply of other medical treatments such as hip operations is restricted only by the financial cost of employing the surgeons and purchasing the devices, organs cannot be paid for by other European states.

Imogen Shillito, director of information and education at the British Liver Trust, said: “If there is cross-border movement of patients, there has to be a similar cross-border movement of organs for transplant, otherwise patients waiting in the UK could lose out.” Twenty-seven of the overseas patients given British organs in the past two years came from Greece and 14 from Cyprus. The Greek and Cypriot governments paid the British hospitals on behalf of their citizens for the patients to be treated privately.

There is a severe shortage of organ donors in Greece. Last year there were only 58 liver donors, although about 150 Greeks were waiting for liver transplants, according to Dr Alkiviadis Kostakis, president of Greece’s Hellenic Transplant Organisation.

Kostakis said: “The patient makes the choice of European Union country and contacts the relevant hospital themselves.

“We confirm that the patient is in the final stages of liver failure. In the case of the UK, the priority depends on the British doctors who assess each case and decide whether, when and how the patient will receive the transplant.”

Additional reporting: Philip Pangalos, Athens

Anyone can join the NHS Organ Donor Register by calling 0845 6060 400

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