Anthony Clarkson, assistant director and chief nurse for organ donation and transplantation, NHS Blood and Transplant

In the time Anthony has been in post, organ donations in the UK have doubled. Colleagues say this is no coincidence. A professional nurse who has spent his entire career in the NHS, he is said to have delivered improvements through “engaging, encouraging and inspiring his UK-wide team of specialist nurses and supporting service colleagues”.

To achieve ambitious targets set out in the UK Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020 strategy, Anthony initiated a sweeping workforce review which considered international best practice, publications, colleague feedback and gathered extensive bespoke data.

Based on this evidence, he instituted the introduction of the specialist requester role in the UK. These are nurses who are given intensive communications training to support potential donor families, and who have been shown to increase the number of families consenting to donation.

The introduction of the role has been funded from wider review savings, and the figures seem to speak of the impact. In 2017-18, there were 1,575 deceased organ donors in the UK – the highest number in UK history and three per cent above the target for that year. This meant that a record number of 4,035 lifesaving organ transplants took place. Colleagues say Anthony can take a large part of the credit for that.

And it is clear he is a leader keen to share his learning and expertise. As part of The Cross Sector Leadership Exchange he worked with hospital colleagues in Soroti, Ugana and is also a member of the Global Leadership Symposium.

Read a detailed case study about this project at HSJ Solutions

Finalists

  • Abdullah Kraam, deputy medical director, consultant child & adolescent psychiatrist, Leeds Community Healthcare Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust
  • Amit Arora, consultant physician and geriatrician, University Hospitals of North Midlands Trust
  • Anita Smith, professional operational lead speech and language therapy, East Sussex Healthcare Trust
  • Jan Wilson, clinical therapy manager, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust
  • Jim Gordon, clinical director for mental health and learning disabilities, South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group
  • Jo Emmanuel, divisional medical director, Central and North West London FT
  • Sian Thomas, consultant nurse child health, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board

Topics

Winners of 2018 HSJ Awards revealed