Transplant Coordinator Pay 2026/27

Last updated: 1 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Transplant coordinator pay 2026/27: the Band 6 and Band 7 scales

England awarded Agenda for Change staff 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and that award is already in these figures. A transplant coordinator in England in 2026/27 earns £39,959 to £48,117 at Band 6 and £49,387 to £56,515 at Band 7, for a full-time 37.5-hour week. The step from the top of Band 6 to Band 7 entry is £1,270, which is small beside the £8,158 spread inside Band 6 itself, so the promotion pays off over the following years rather than on day one. For the wider picture at each band, see the Band 6 salary guide and the Band 7 salary guide.

The 2026/27 England scales for a full-time 37.5-hour week. Hourly rates are annual pay divided by 52.2 weeks and then by 37.5 hours, rounded to the nearest penny, and enhancement and overtime rates on this page are calculated from that rounded hourly rate. Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12. Weekly pay is annual pay divided by 52.2.

For comparison, the 2025/26 ranges before the 3.3% award were £38,682 to £46,580 at Band 6 and £47,810 to £54,710 at Band 7. The award lifted every step, and no back pay was due in England because the increase was paid on time in April salaries.

What a recipient transplant coordinator actually does

A recipient transplant coordinator looks after patients on the transplant waiting list and after they receive a transplant, and the job is split between planned work and unplanned work in a way few other nursing posts are. The planned work is clinic and assessment: assessing patients for listing, preparing them for the wait, keeping waiting-list records current, running follow-up clinics, and coordinating care with the surgical, medical and pharmacy teams. The unplanned work arrives with an organ offer. When an offer comes in, the coordinator is part of the team that checks the match, contacts the patient, and brings them in for surgery, often at short notice and outside normal hours. A patient who has waited months can be called in on a Sunday night, and the coordinator's week bends around that call.

After transplant, the coordinator follows the patient through the early recovery period and into long-term follow-up: clinic reviews, monitoring for rejection and infection, medicines education, and the handover to local teams as the patient stabilises. The relationship is long: a coordinator may know a patient from assessment, through the wait, through surgery, and for years after. That continuity is the reason the role asks for experience in the specialty first. Kidney transplant coordinators usually come from renal nursing, and our renal nurse salary guide covers the Band 5 to 7 pay picture for that background. Liver, heart and lung coordinators come from the matching specialty wards and clinics, and the same Band 6 and Band 7 scales apply whichever organ the service covers.

One distinction matters for pay and for the job itself. The recipient side is not the donor side. Specialist nurses in organ donation work with donor hospitals and donor families, as covered in our organ donation nurse salary guide. Recipient coordinators work with waiting-list patients and recipients. The basic pay scales are the same, but the rota, the clinic caseload and the on-call pattern are different, so a post should be judged on its own local terms, not on the band alone.

Band 6 versus Band 7: what actually changes

At Band 6, the coordinator carries the caseload: waiting-list patients and post-transplant follow-up, the assessment and clinic work, the on-call turns for organ offers, and the records and liaison that keep a transplant service running. The nurse works with a high degree of autonomy, because an organ offer does not wait for a ward round, and the decisions made on a call at night are real clinical decisions. At Band 7, the coordinator leads the service: running the rota, supervising and mentoring Band 6 coordinators, holding the most complex cases, and leading service development such as improving waiting-list management or follow-up pathways. Band 7 also carries the governance side, including audit and protocol work with the surgical and medical teams. The pay difference at the point of promotion is £1,270 from the top of Band 6 to Band 7 entry, but Band 7 opens the route to senior practice and service management roles, where the work moves further from the on-call rota and closer to running the service.

On-call: the rota that defines the job, and the honest limit on the figures

Transplant services run around the clock because organ offers do. Coordinators work on-call rotas covering nights, weekends and bank holidays, so that a patient can be called in whenever a suitable organ is offered. A coordinator on call must be reachable, must be able to reach the transplant centre within the locally set response time, and must be ready to stay through the admission and the early post-transplant period once a patient is called in. That availability shapes sleep, weekend plans and travel while on call, and it is the defining feature of the job.

On-call availability payments and call-out terms for this role are set locally by the employer, not in the national Agenda for Change scale, so this page quotes no on-call rate. Any page that prints a single national transplant coordinator on-call figure is inventing it. What is fixed nationally is what happens to hours actually worked: hours falling in the unsocial windows attract the Section 2 enhancements below, and hours above 37.5 in the week attract the overtime rates. Before accepting a post, ask for the local on-call policy in writing: the availability payment, how call-outs are paid, the expected response time, how often the rota turns over, and whether rest after a long night case is protected. Those local terms, together with the unsocial table below, are the real pay picture of a coordinator post. For the general on-call rules, see our on-call allowance guide.

Unsocial hours: nights and weekends are a routine part of coordinator pay

Section 2 of Agenda for Change pays time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays, for Bands 4 to 9. For a weekday clinic nurse those enhancements are a small addition. For a transplant coordinator, whose organ offers arrive whenever they arrive, they are a routine part of pay, and they are the reason two coordinators at the same band can take home different amounts in a month with several night call-ins. Enhancement and overtime cannot both be claimed for the same hours.

An 8-hour Sunday shift at Band 6 entry pays £261.28 at the enhanced rate, against £163.28 at plain time. That is the arithmetic to run when comparing a coordinator post with a weekday post: count the unsocial hours in a typical month, price them from this table, and add the local on-call terms on top. For the full rules, see our unsocial hours and overtime guide.

Overtime: time and a half, double on bank holidays

At Bands 6 and 7, overtime above 37.5 hours a week is paid at time and a half, and double time on bank holidays. From the rounded hourly rates, time and a half is £30.62 at Band 6 entry, £32.31 at Band 6 intermediate, £36.87 at the top of Band 6, £37.85 at Band 7 entry, £39.80 at Band 7 intermediate and £43.31 at the top of Band 7. Double time on a bank holiday is £40.82 at Band 6 entry, £49.16 at the top of Band 6, £50.46 at Band 7 entry and £57.74 at the top of Band 7. Part-time nurses are paid at plain time, plus any unsocial enhancement that applies, for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5; the overtime rates only start above 37.5. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of pay.

Mileage: clinic and home-visit travel under Section 17

Some coordinator work involves travel, for example to outreach clinics or to see patients away from the transplant centre, and that travel is claimable under Agenda for Change Section 17. The 2026/27 car rates are 59p a mile for the first 4,500 business miles in the mileage year and 36p a mile above that, with 30p for motorcycles, 20p for pedal cycles and 5p for passengers. A coordinator who drives 7,000 business miles in a year claims 4,500 miles at 59p (£2,655) plus 2,500 miles at 36p (£900), a total of £3,555. Travel between home and the normal place of work is not claimable. Keep a mileage log from the first week: the claim is only as good as the record, and the 4,500-mile threshold means the rate drops mid-year for high-mileage staff, which changes the monthly claim. For the full rates, see our mileage rates guide.

London weighting: what HCAS adds

Transplant coordinators in London trusts receive the High Cost Area Supplement on top of basic pay: 20% of basic in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). The minimums matter less at these bands than the maximums: at Band 6 entry in outer London, 15% of £39,959 is £5,993.85, above the minimum, so the coordinator receives the percentage figure and a total of £45,952.85. The maximums matter at the top of Band 7, where 20% of £56,515 is £11,303, above the inner London cap, so the coordinator receives £8,746 and a total of £65,261. For the full zone rules, see our London weighting guide.

Pension: what comes off the payslip

Transplant coordinators are in the NHS Pension Scheme, and the member contribution is the largest regular deduction after tax. On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, every Band 6 step sits in the 9.8% tier: £3,915.98 a year or £326.33 a month at Band 6 entry, £4,132.66 a year or £344.39 a month at Band 6 intermediate, and £4,715.47 a year or £392.96 a month at the top of Band 6. At Band 7 the rate is 9.8% at entry and at the intermediate step, £4,839.93 a year or £403.33 a month on £49,387 and £5,089.34 a year or £424.11 a month on £51,932, and 10.7% at the top, £6,047.11 a year or £503.93 a month on £56,515. The employer contributes 23.7% on top, which is £13,394.06 a year at the top of Band 7. The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, so treat the tier boundaries as subject to confirmation. For the full tier table, see our pension contributions guide.

Part-time work, annual leave and uniform relief

Part-time coordinator work exists, but the on-call rota makes it a conversation to have early: a part-time coordinator still needs to cover on-call turns, and the pattern of those turns matters more than the contracted hours alone. Part-time pay is pro rata of the full-time equivalent salary. A 0.8 WTE Band 6 coordinator at entry earns 80% of £39,959, which is £31,967.20 a year, and a 0.6 WTE Band 7 coordinator at the top earns 60% of £56,515, which is £33,909.00 a year, before any enhancements. Part-time coordinators accrue annual leave pro rata as well, and hours above contracted hours up to 37.5 are paid at plain time plus any unsocial enhancement, as explained above. For the leave rules in full, see our annual leave guide and our part-time pay guide.

Annual leave in England follows the Agenda for Change tiers: 27 days plus 8 bank holidays for up to 4 years of service, 29 plus 8 from 5 years, and 33 plus 8 from 10 years. Uniform tax relief is a small but real extra: nurses can claim HMRC flat-rate expenses of £125 a year for laundering a uniform where the employer provides no laundry service or allowance, worth £25 a year at the basic tax rate and £50 at the higher rate, backdatable up to 4 tax years on form P87.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland has its own Agenda for Change scale and a 36-hour week from April 2026, after a 3.75% award from 1 April 2026. The Scotland Band 5 range is £34,494 to £42,977, which works out at £18.36 to £22.87 an hour on the 36-hour week. Scotland Band 6 and Band 7 steps are not quoted here because the full Scotland scales for those bands are not in the verified data file, and this page does not guess at them. Wales awarded 3.3% from 1 April 2026, and the Wales Band 5 steps are £32,557, £35,114 and £39,631, slightly above the England steps at entry and intermediate. Northern Ireland is different: the 3.3% award was recommended but had not been implemented at the time of writing, so Northern Ireland transplant coordinators should not budget on the new rates until implementation is confirmed. For the nation guides, see NHS Scotland pay, NHS Wales pay and NHS Northern Ireland pay.

The honest picture: what transplant coordinator pay does and does not do

Transplant coordinator pay in 2026/27 is solid, nationally set, and transparent: anyone can look up the band, find the step, and know the basic salary to the penny. It does not reward the specialty itself. There is no transplant coordinator supplement in the national scale, and no national on-call rate to quote, because on-call terms are local. What varies is the rota, the travel, and the location: a coordinator on a heavy on-call rota with several night call-ins, a London coordinator with HCAS, and a coordinator in a quieter service can sit at the same band and take home quite different amounts. When comparing coordinator posts, get the local on-call policy in writing, price the unsocial hours from the table, ask how often the rota turns over, and confirm the HCAS zone. Those answers tell you more about the real pay of a post than the band alone ever will.

Frequently asked questions

What band is a transplant coordinator in the NHS?

In England in 2026/27, a recipient transplant coordinator typically sits at Band 6 or Band 7. Band 6 pays £39,959 at entry, £42,170 at the intermediate step and £48,117 at the top, and Band 7 pays £49,387 at entry, £51,932 at the intermediate step and £56,515 at the top, for a full-time 37.5-hour week. Band 6 is the coordinator grade, carrying a caseload of patients on the waiting list and after transplant, while Band 7 is the lead coordinator grade, running the service, supervising coordinators and holding the most complex cases.

How much does a transplant coordinator earn a month?

In England in 2026/27, a transplant coordinator at Band 6 earns £3,329.92 a month at entry, £3,514.17 at the intermediate step and £4,009.75 at the top, before tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. At Band 7 the monthly figures are £4,115.58 at entry, £4,327.67 at the intermediate step and £4,709.58 at the top. Those are gross figures for a full-time 37.5-hour week, before any unsocial-hours enhancement, overtime, on-call payments or London weighting.

What does a recipient transplant coordinator actually do?

A recipient transplant coordinator looks after patients on the transplant waiting list and after they receive a transplant. Before transplant, the coordinator assesses patients for listing, prepares them for the wait, keeps their records current, and stays in contact while they wait. When an organ is offered, the coordinator is part of the team that checks the match, contacts the patient, and brings them in for surgery, often at short notice and outside normal hours. After transplant, the coordinator follows the patient through clinic, monitors recovery and complications, and coordinates the long-term follow-up with the surgical, medical and pharmacy teams. The work is split between planned clinic and assessment work and unplanned on-call work when an offer arrives.

How much is transplant coordinator on-call pay?

There is no national Agenda for Change on-call rate quoted on this page, because on-call availability and call-out payments for this role are set locally by the employer rather than in the national pay scale. That is the honest position: any figure presented as a national transplant coordinator on-call rate would be invented. What is national is the treatment of hours actually worked when called in: hours falling in the unsocial windows attract the Section 2 enhancements in the table on this page, and hours above 37.5 in the week attract the overtime rates. Ask for the local on-call policy, including the availability payment, the call-out terms and the response-time expectation, before accepting a post, because those local terms are a large part of the real pay of the job.

Do transplant coordinators get unsocial hours payments?

Yes, for hours actually worked in the unsocial windows. Section 2 of Agenda for Change pays time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 60% for Sundays and bank holidays, for Bands 4 to 9. At Band 6 entry that is £26.53 an hour on Saturdays and weekday nights and £32.66 on Sundays and bank holidays, against £20.41 in plain time. At the top of Band 7 it is £37.53 and £46.19, against £28.87 plain time. Because organ offers arrive around the clock, unsocial hours make up a larger share of a transplant coordinator's pay than they do for a weekday clinic nurse.

Is a transplant coordinator the same as an organ donation nurse?

No. The two roles sit on opposite sides of the same process. A specialist nurse in organ donation works with donor hospitals and donor families on the donor side, as covered in our organ donation nurse salary guide. A recipient transplant coordinator works with patients waiting for a transplant and with recipients after surgery, on the recipient side. The basic pay scales are the same Agenda for Change bands, but the day-to-day work, the on-call pattern and the clinic caseload are different, so compare the two posts on their local on-call terms and rota, not on the band alone.

Do transplant coordinators get London weighting?

Yes, where the post is based in a London trust. Transplant coordinators receive the High Cost Area Supplement: 20% of basic pay in inner London (minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746), 15% in outer London (minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137) and 5% in the fringe zone (minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270). A Band 6 coordinator at entry in inner London earns £39,959 + £7,991.80 = £47,950.80 a year. At the top of Band 7 in inner London the supplement is capped at £8,746, giving £65,261 a year.

How much pension does a transplant coordinator pay?

On the provisional 2026/27 England and Wales tiers, a Band 6 transplant coordinator pays 9.8% of pensionable pay at every step: £326.33 a month on £39,959, £344.39 a month on £42,170 and £392.96 a month on £48,117. At Band 7 the rate is 9.8% at entry and at the intermediate step (£403.33 a month on £49,387 and £424.11 a month on £51,932) and 10.7% at the top (£503.93 a month on £56,515). The employer contributes 23.7% on top, which is £13,394.06 a year at the top of Band 7. The 2026/27 tiers are provisional, calculated from the published 2025/26 tiers, not yet published as final.