Professor  Chris Rudge (1949-  )

Chris Rudge was a transplant surgeon in London who became UK Transplant’s first Medical Director, and later the first National Clinical Director for Transplantation.

He was appointed Consultant Transplant Surgeon at Guy’s and King’s College Hospitals in 1981. He went on to be Director of Transplantation at The Royal London Hospital from 1994-2001.

In 2001 he was appointed as UK Transplant’s first Medical Director. Following the establishment of the merged Authority NHS Blood and Transplant, he became the Managing and Transplant Director of UK Transplant.  In this role he was responsible for all UK Transplant ‘s activities in solid organ transplantation (together with corneal transplantation), and also had a responsibility to increase organ donation across the UK.  He worked to improve donor management, the retrieval process,  and data analysis at UK Transplant.

In   2008, Chris Rudge took up the role at the Department of Health as National Clinical Director for Transplantation, with responsibility for implementation of the Organ Donation Taskforce Recommendations.

He retired from this role in 2011, also retiring from the part-time clinical practice at the Royal London which he had always maintained despite his national responsibilities.  .

In June 2012 he became CBE  for services to donation and organ transplantation.

Read  Chris Rudge’s personal reflection of the excitement of the early days of renal transplantation, which set his career path.

Last Updated on July 4, 2023 by John Feehally