Paving the way on organ donation

Last year, 83 Welsh residents donated organs – a record number. Successful campaigns such as Donate Wales’ Tell a Loved One in 2008 helped Wales to have the highest rate of donation in the UK. But it’s not enough.

On average, one person in Wales dies every week waiting for an organ transplant.

For patients with severe heart failure a transplant offers the best chance of long term survival. Unfortunately, the shortage of donor organs means they are likely to wait years for a transplant. And tragically, whilst they wait on the list, they may become too ill to receive a transplant.

So how can we change this?

The Welsh Government will shortly introduce a bill that will pave the way for a soft opt-out system of organ donation. Such a system would automatically place everyone on the organ donor register unless they put forward an objection. An additional safeguard would also allow the deceased’s relatives to veto the donation of any organs.

This opt-out system will be the first of its kind in the UK. It would start in 2015 after time for a public information and awareness campaign.

International research suggests that organ donation from people who have died increases by approximately 25-30 per cent in countries where opt out applies

We know that there is currently a yawning gap between good intention and action. Although 9 out of 10 people support organ donation fewer than 3 in 10 have joined the donor register. The BHF feels that an opt-out system would better reflect the wishes of the majority of people, whilst still giving people a choice about whether to donate or not.

We don’t pretend an opt-out system alone is not enough. The Welsh Government needs to develop the infrastructure and capacity of the system, and provide training for health care professionals, to help ensure the organs reach those in need.

Significant steps have already been made towards this, for example with the new kidney transplant unit being built at University Hospital of Wales and the recruitment of a network of donor co-ordinators across Wales.

And for the BHF’s part we are funding research into regenerative medicine. This may one day enable the heart to repair itself and mean that people will no longer need heart transplants. But until that time transplants remain the best option for critically ill heart failure patients

Wales has a history of innovative thinking in increasing organ donation, devising the concept of a kidney donor card and a computerised Organ Donor Register.  Wales now has a chance to lead the way again, and transform the lives of so many desperately ill people.

Delyth Lloyd is Policy and Advocacy  Manager – Wales at the British Heart Foundation