Letter: Racist transplant

Sir: You report ("Dobson pledges to end transplant racism", 8 July) that Frank Dobson, the Secretary of State for Health, said: "It never occurred to me that a rule would be necessary..." regarding racism in the NHS. However, his protestations simply do not hold water.

With the support of the Commission for Racial Equality we, the Liberal Democrat team working on the recent Health Bill, asked, not once, not twice, but three times for a duty of non-discrimination to be placed on all health authorities and trusts in the NHS. Three times the Government refused.

Placing this duty would have made the situation in Sheffield, where a family placed a racial condition on a kidney donation, simply impossible.

SIMON HUGHES MP

Dr EVAN HARRIS MP

PAUL BURSTOW MP

Sir ROBERT SMITH MP

Lord CLEMENT-JONES

House of Commons

London SW1