A LIVERPOOL-BASED liver specialist last night warned that the UK’s chronic organ donation crisis will get worse, with Britain’s culture of excess driving a burgeoning obesity epidemic.

Speaking as Gordon Brown signalled his support for the removal of organs from dead patients without their explicit consent, Professor Ian Gilmore warned that there was an increasing need for liver transplants.

In a move to help thousands more people waiting for organ donations, the Prime Minister is backing a policy of “presumed consent” and planning to recruit 100 donor specialists to liaise with families in a bid to increase the number or organs donated.

If implemented, the new measures would mean that, unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to take their organs.

The number of people treated in hospital for liver diseases in England in 2006-07 increased by nearly 80% over the last eight years to reach a record high of 45,557.

Experts warn of a liver disease time bomb as rates of obesity, excessive drinking and hepatitis C continue to soar.

“The striking increases we are seeing in chronic liver disease will increase the need for liver transplants,” said Dr Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, who is based at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

“The rise in alcohol-related damage seems set to continue as we have not found a way to reduce the nation’s drinking habit.”

The numbers of people treated for alcoholic liver disease has doubled to more than 26,000 since 1998.

Meanwhile, the gap between the numbers of suitable donor organs and patients desperately needing them is getting wider every year.

Experts warn that the chronic shortages will get worse, with greater longevity, and the consequences of binge drinking leading to increasing demands for healthy donor organs.

Mr Brown, writing at the weekend, said a system where people opt out of the donor register could save lives.

He said: “A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our system of consent.”

Ministers will embark shortly on a review of the existing system, with doctors and nurses expected to sign up more donors. But Mr Brown indicated his backing for the more radical approach, which is similar to that in Spain where there are more organ donors per head of population than anywhere else.

Mr Brown’s revelations come on the eve of a publication by a government task force set up to examine ways to help to solve the donor crisis.

The report, to be published tomorrow, recommends a 14-point plan to increase the number of registered donors by 50% in five years by doubling the number of specialised staff, standardising training across the UK and strengthening out-of-hours services to get organs to where they are needed quickly.

Strategies to reduce current inequalities with ethnic minorities are also included.

Doctors believe thousands of lives could be saved if the Government implements all 14 recommendations.

carolineinnes