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A team which makes sure organs are available for life-saving transplants, has received national recognition for its outstanding work.

UHB supports the National Organ Retrieval Service (NORS), by retrieving livers, kidneys and pancreata, which are then sent to transplant programmes throughout the UK.

A special event was held at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in June, to mark the achievements of the UHB Abdominal NORS team and thank staff for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), the national organ donation organisation, also sent a letter of commendation to the Trust praising the team’s work.

COVID-19 had a significant impact on the transplant programmes in the UK and some programmes were suspended. Many NORS team members were redeployed to look after COVID patients, but the Birmingham NORS team remained operational throughout the pandemic.

Ian Currie, NHSBT’s Associate Medical Director, wrote: “We are aware of the monumental effort of key individuals to ensure the service was maintained to support donation and retrieval, and to respect the end-of-life decisions of patients and their families.

“Not only did the Birmingham Abdominal NORS team maintain this vital service throughout the pandemic, but it also continued to do so through the recent unprecedented operational pressures. This is an outstanding achievement and rightly deserves special acknowledgment.

“This letter is to commend the NORS lead surgeons, and the scrub and organ preservation practitioners within the abdominal NORS team, for their dedication to actively sustain the vital work of organ retrieval and hence transplantation.

“Staff travelled significant distances and worked long hours away from base in adverse conditions in order to ensure organs were available for life-saving transplants.”

NHSBT has also sent prestigious certificates of recognition thanking 11 of the theatre practitioners for five years’ service to NORS.

NORS was established in 2010, with nine other regional teams performing donor surgery for abdominal organs. The Birmingham team covers one of the largest geographical areas.

The NORS team works behind the scenes and its organ procurement work is the key initial step to achieve a successful organ transplantation.

Jane Mangco, Lead Retrieval Nurse, said: “Being a part of the NORS Team is very rewarding, because you know you are being part of the donor’s wishes and their greatest gift; the gift of life. I look at it as the ultimate recycle; you live on through others by giving them a second chance to live.”

John Isaac, Liver Transplant Surgeon, said: “The NORS team are an absolutely integral part of the Transplant Team and the quality of their work has a direct bearing on the out come of our organ transplant recipients. Not everyone is fully aware of this, so we are absolutely delighted that the excellent work of the team has been recognised by NHSBT in this way.”