Vassilios Papalois

Vassilios Papalois is a Consultant Transplant Surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

"I work in the West London Renal and Transplant Centre at the Hammersmith Hospital, which is the biggest unit of its kind in Europe. Our team performs more than 200 organ transplants every year, and almost half of them are living donor kidney transplants. Our programme increases every year and we offer our patients live donor kidney transplantation as their first and best option, ideally before they even go on dialysis.

"We now accept more challenging cases of donors and recipients for living donor kidney transplantation. Our team has also developed the biggest programme in the UK for facilitating antibody removal to enable transplants between certain donors and recipients who are blood group incompatible, so the transplant is less likely to be rejected.

"The support of the HTA, in its coordination of transplant approvals, has been vital in enabling these new technologies to be applied, and has helped us get this project off the ground, increasing the number of successful transplants.

"Before patients become involved in transplant operations, Independent Assessors (IAs) make sure they understand the potential risks. The HTA coordinates this process in an objective, supportive and efficient way. Communication and confidence are paramount.

"The HTA was instrumental in helping to facilitate paired transplants. This involves exchange of kidney between two donor and recipient pairs for whom the transplant was not originally possible due to blood group or tissue incompatibility. Our centre was recently involved in the first three-way exchange live donor kidney transplant for which the HTA played a crucial andalways helpful role.

"Although we do our homework well, it is still very reassuring to know there is a national organisation that checks everything is done properly for patients and professionals. The HTA protects the interests of those involved in transplants, and the reputation of transplantation in the UK."