Current status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 3 February 2026
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the transplant pathways for people who have received the Fontan procedure and/or who are complex congenital heart disease patients, and what steps it is taking to help ensure that they do not need to travel outside Scotland to access what can be life-saving care.
The Scottish Government is working to increase the number of organ transplants for Scottish patients, to reduce waiting times, and to provide the best possible outcomes for patients.
Heart transplantation for adults and children who have received the Fontan procedure, and/or who have complex congenital heart disease, is a highly complex operation that requires specific skill sets for the heart transplant teams looking after these patients. As a result, complex congenital heart transplantation is undertaken at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for the whole of the UK. This arrangement is supported by the NHS Blood and Transplant Cardiothoracic Advisory Group in order to concentrate this relatively uncommon activity in one centre to ensure adequate volume and maintenance of requisite skills for the team.
The Scottish Government is content that this arrangement provides patients with complex congenital heart disease requiring transplantation in Scotland with the best possible service and the lowest clinical risk. Accordingly, there are no current plans to review the transplant pathways for these operations.