The organs of 50 NHS donors have been given to foreign patients in the past two years.

Forty of the transplants were apparently for Greeks or Cypriots who are entitled to British medical care under EU law.

The remainder included patients from non-EU countries such as China, Libya and the United Arab Emirates, seven of whom were classed as deserving equal access to services.

There is a shortage of donor organs in the UK and some hospitals prioritise British patients. Currently, 325 people are waiting for a new liver.

Most of the operations, which all involved liver transplants, took place at King's College Hospital and the Royal Free in London.

The Department of Health said that these patients, although not from the EU, must have met criteria allowing them NHS treatment.

Dr Mervyn Davies, a consultant hepatologist at St James's University hospital in Leeds, said: "There is a shortage of donors and we cannot cater for the whole of the EU.

"It is tragic for these patients but the system that we have cannot cope with the UK demand as it is."

A spokesman for King's confirmed said: "Some EU countries, including the Republic of Ireland, Greece and Cyprus, do not have large enough liver transplant programmes of their own to support patient need," he said.

"This is why a higher proportion of non-UK EU patients treated at King's come from these countries than from others."

He added that the Greek and Cypriot governments choose to pay for their nationals' treatment outside of the contract with the Department of Health, meaning they are effectively treated as private patients with payments made directly to the hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Free said: "Allocation of organs is determined according to clinical need."

"The NHS funds the actual transplant episode for facilities that would be used by NHS patients.

"For the activity not covered by the NHS, additional charges are made by our private practice unit."

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