Organ Donation

What is organ donation?

Organ donation is donating a vital organ to a recipient whose own organ has failed or is failing. That organ can either come from a deceased donor or a living donor. Depending on the type of donated organ that is transplanted the outcome will be either life saving or life enhancing.

Some organs such as a kidney, lung and segment of liver, can be donated during life. However, most organ and tissue donations come from people who have expressed a wish during their lifetime to help others upon their death. Often they do this formally by registering their desire to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register or by discussing donation with their loved ones.
 

What is tissue donation?

Every year hundreds of lives are saved with the help of donated organs such as hearts and kidneys. But you may not realise that donated tissues such as corneas and heart valves can dramatically improve the quality of life for recipients, and even save lives.
Some tissues, such as bone, can be donated during life. But most tissues are donated after death, by people who have expressed a wish during their lifetime to help others in this way by joining the NHS Organ Donor Register.
 
The Department of Health in Enland has stated that the offer of organ and tissue donation should be integral to all bereavement services, and that donation should always be considered when it becomes certain that a patient will die or has died.
 

Organ DonationThe NHS Organ Donation Register

The Register  is a confidential, computerised database which holds the wishes of more than 16 million people who have decided that, after their death, they want to leave a legacy of life for others. The register is used to help establish whether a person wanted to donate and, if so, what.
 
 

 

 

The Organ Donation System in Wales

This current system requires a patient to consent by opting into the organ donation system before death. Health professionals should still consult with relatives, where possible, to find out if the deceased had spoken about their wishes and to encourage them to be respected. In this current system a person may have registered their wish to donate organs on the UK Organ Donation Register but not have their wish respected. Currently in the UK, the refusal rates stand at 40%.
 
Organs are allocated on a clinical need basis across the UK by NHS Blood and Transplant and there is no intention to change this system. The UK Organ Donation Taskforce report (2008) proposed reforms to the current system to identify and remove obstacles to organ donation within it. Whilst the recommendations will improve the current situation, a significant gap will still remain between the number of donor organs needed and the number of organs available for transplant.

The Welsh Assembly Government has considered legislative powers to enable Wales to switch to a "soft opt-out" system – where consent to donate an organ is presumed unless the person has indicated otherwise or if their relatives object.  Consultation had shown support for this. Until the recent referendum's "Yes" vote the Welsh Assembly Government did not have the necessary powers to implement its plans to change the organ donation system in Wales.

You can find more information in the news articles below:

 

Services

There are clinical leads for organ donation in all Health Boards and there is a network of transplant coordinators across all critical care units in Wales.

 

 

Publications

A report from the Organ Donation Taskforce, making recommendations on action to take to increase the number of organs available for transplantation.

 

Resources

Clinical Pathways have been developed to provide healthcare professionals throughout the UK with a single access point to comprehensive educational resources and information on complex processes in organ donation.

 

 

 

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