King's College Hospital in London is under investigation after it emerged that NHS livers have been given to private patients from Greece and Cyprus, despite a waiting list of 400 Britons. The Healthcare Commission has launched an inquiry following a Mail on Sunday investigation.
Surgeons led by Professor Nigel Heaton, who performed a controversial liver transplant on George Best, are paid around £20,000 per operation. The hospital earns about £85,000 per transplant from the Greek and Cypriot governments, from which the surgeon's fee is deducted. Prof Heaton has earned up to £100,000 from five such operations in the past year on top of his NHS salary.
Between 2003 and 2007, 111 liver transplants were carried out on EU patients from outside Britain, with 72 performed at King's. Of those, 47 were from Greece and Cyprus. At least 400 people in the UK are waiting for a liver, and 20 per cent will die before a suitable organ is found.
Some hospitals, such as the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, refuse to consider non-UK patients for transplant, believing organs should be reserved for British nationals. The Liver Advisory Group has discussed concerns that transplanting non-UK EU patients denies UK patients a liver.
Ingrid Shillito of the British Liver Trust said it would be 'very wrong for financial matters to influence these difficult decisions.' King's has admitted many Greek patients come from Laiko Hospital in Athens, where transplant services are underfunded.
