the FOI blog

International Bone Marrow

These are some recent responses I received about international bone marrow donations.  NHS Blood and Transport stated that they charged £1,631,356 in 2009/10 for the supply of 143, of which 57 were for international patients at a cost of £772,956 - this meant that 86 to UK recipients cost £858400.   So on average each donation costs very close to £10,000 (£9981).

NHS National Services Scotland stated to me that between April 2008 to March 2009 there were 29 transplants which cost them £755,946, of which 11 were from international donors.

This means 18 donations were from the UK and should have cost around £180,000.  So the international donations cost £575,946 - which is approximately £52,350 per donation.

This is not an exact science because neither of the bodies keep detailed records.

But it appears that the UK is charged 5 times as much for international donations as the NHS charge other countries.

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