Public confidence in organ donation may have been damaged after the UK government admitted that the preferences of 21 deceased donors were not honoured. In fact, it appears that the preferences of about 800,000 people have been incorrectly recorded for 10 years. Donations from these people have been placed on hold.

The problem came to light last year when the National Health Service wrote to donors to check their organ donor preferences.  Many wrote back saying that they were incorrect. One of them, Stephen Banks, told the BBC: "I renewed my driving licence in March this year and ticked the options to donate all my organs apart from eyes. However I then got a letter from the NHS which said I had donated all my organs including my eyes. I feel a bit embarrassed to call up and say, 'I want my eyes back.'”

Health secretary Andy Burnham told the BBC: "We do need to get to the bottom of it. It would appear to relate to a technical error going back to 1999 and this was how data was transferred between the DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority) and the blood and transplant service. That has now been corrected," he said.

The NHS has already corrected about half of flawed records and will contact everyone who may have been affected to confirm their donation preferences. What may not be so easy to fix is public confidence in the system.

Professor Peter Friend, a transplant surgeon at Oxford University, told the London Telegraph that  if families were unsure that preferences had been correctly recorded they might refuse to consent to any donation. “If a family says ‘no’ for a donor who would have wanted it to happen, there are two or three avoidable deaths. It is a disaster.” BBC, Apr 11; London Telegraph, Apr 11