Newcastle has a long and successful history of caring for patients with end-stage organ failure, for whom transplantation may be the only treatment option available.
We have nationally and internationally acclaimed transplant specialists practicing in the Institute, whose vast breadth of expertise and commitment to providing the best possible healthcare has resulted in an exceptional standing in the field.
Map – Freeman HospitalAll transplant services under one roof
Located at the Freeman Hospital – one of the most experienced and successful solid organ transplant centres in the UK – our experts’ rationale for creating this unique Institute was to consolidate all transplant services into one organisational structure and bring together all forms of organ transplantation under one roof.
This includes heart, lung, liver, kidney, kidney/pancreas, and cell transplantation as well as regenerative medicine.
This new approach to transplant care is the first of its kind in the UK. Centralising both physical and professional services within in-patient and day-patient settings, means we can ensure the very best use of our resources and allows us to develop a strong multidisciplinary medical and nursing team.
Operating under one roof also allows us to focus on continuously improving our excellent outcomes for patients across all transplant specialities, whilst learning from each other to achieve new heights.
‘Where art meets science’
Working together in one facility helps us to explore the many facets of the Multi-Organ Transplant Programme, and allows the ‘art of transplantation to meet the science of transplantation’ within the clinic and the laboratory.
The Institute also offers a unique opportunity for education and learning.
The face of organ transplantation in the UK is changing rapidly – there is a lack of donors and those that are now available are older, ‘heavier’ and ‘sicker’.
Ground-breaking research
The Institute offers a unique opportunity for ground-breaking research into new ways of using ‘high-risk’ organs, and getting the best out of those we have, while keeping those already transplanted going for as long as possible.
To this end we felt that the Institute offered an essential link between the NHS and Newcastle University.
Transplant research has been one of the academic strengths within the university and the Institute of Transplantation has already fostered collaboration between transplant research groups at the university.
The partnership we have with academic facilitates translates research into common practices, and enables delivery of potential clinical therapeutic stem cell approaches, fosters clinical trials with novel drugs, and provides a unique national resource for training in transplantation in the UK.
About the Freeman Hospital
The Freeman Hospital is one of the most experienced and successful solid organ transplant centres in the UK with over 30 years of experience providing adult transplants for heart, lungs, heart & lungs, liver, kidneys, kidney & pancreas and, more recently, pancreatic islets.
We also provide heart and lung transplants for children at the Freeman Hospital whilst other organ transplant surgery is carried out by our paediatricians based at the Great North Children’s Hospital at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
Our vision is to provide the very best transplantation outcomes for recipients and an increased utilization of donor organs.
Through leadership, boldness and willingness to change established practice, our new purpose built facilities and fully integrated support services shall ensure a holistic transplantation centre at the forefront of research and education.
Internationally renowned
We are a national leader in the field of solid organ transplantation and are proud to report some of the highest success rates in the UK, most notably in lung transplantation.
The Freeman is internationally renowned having a number of “firsts” to its credit:
- Surgeons performed the first successful heart transplant for a baby in the UK in 1987
- This was followed by the first successful single lung transplant in Europe and then the first successful double lung transplant in Europe in 1990.
The Freeman is also one of very few hospitals in the country who can provide simultaneous multi-transplant surgery such as kidney and pancreas transplants. This means that we often receive referrals for very complex cases, patients who have certain types of cancers and those who have received previous transplants.
Many of these “high risk” patients will have been considered too difficult to manage by other transplant centres.
Transplant TV
Transplant TV is an online education initiative from the Institute of Transplantation with a range of stories and programmes for transplant patients and potential donors, giving them an insight into the experiences of both patients and professionals.
Click on the image below to find out more:
