More bereaved families are turning down requests to donate a relative's organs

More bereaved families are turning down requests to donate a relative's organs.

The worrying drop in organ donation rates has seen health chiefs appeal to people to tell their loved ones their wishes.

It comes as NHS Blood and Transplant statistics show the number of people who need a transplant is at a 10-year high.

The Mirror successfully achieved a law change to “deemed consent” in England from 2020 after the Change the Law for Life campaign - but bereaved families still have the final say.

The annual NHSBT transplant activity report shows the UK consent rate fell to 61% in 2023/24, down from 69% four years ago, the BBC reported. Last year it dropped by 1%.

The report outlined reasons relatives give for vetoing donation with just over a fifth saying the patient had expressed a wish not to donate. However 16% said no because they felt the process took too long, up from 12.7% the previous year. The drop comes alongside unprecedented NHS delays and staffing problems since the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement, NHS Blood Transplant said: "The Covid-19 pandemic heavily hit donation and transplant initially, so it has taken time for donation and transplant to recover. Since the change in organ donation legislation, opt-in registrations on the NHS Organ Donation Register have steadily increased to more than 28 million people in the UK, which is encouraging.

"However, opt-out legislation is not the sole answer to improving organ donation. We will continue to work with our partners and communities to deliver empowering initiatives which motivate individuals to register their decision."

The biggest annual drop in UK consent rates came after the pandemic in 2022/23 when it fell from 66% to 62%. Since then there has been an increase in families refusing because they felt the donation process took too long and that the patient had “suffered enough”.

Last year’s report showed in 13.2% of cases the families vetoed organ donation because they “felt unsure” whether the patient would have agreed. This was up slightly from 11.9% the previous year. There were 7,484 people on the active waiting list in March, up 8% in a year. In the 12 months to the end of March, 418 patients died waiting for a transplant.

Lesley Clarke agreed to donate organs of her partner Richard Still who died in 2022. The retired nurse and lecturer suffered a brain haemorrhage at their home near Lincoln. Lesley explained: "Richard was incredibly keen on transplants and he used to nag me, 'what do you want to do?' and I was a bit wishy washy about it and wouldn't really answer." One of his corneas was donated to help save someone’s sight.

Lesley added: "I had a lovely letter from the patient, saying what a difference it had made to their life, that they could now see again. It made me realise, it made it real.”

The "opt-out" law was pioneered in Wales from 2015 before being introduced in England in 2020, then Scotland in 2021 and Northern Ireland last year. All adults are considered to have agreed to be potential organ donors when they die, unless they have recorded a decision not to donate or are in an excluded group.

The latest annual NHSBT report shows consent rates for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were 60%, 56%, 61% and 66% respectively. Only 1% of people in the UK die in circumstances where they may be able to be an organ donor.

NHSBT says it is vital that all those who agree to donation make their decision known by signing the NHS Organ Donor Register as this helps families be sure what their loved one wanted.

Click HERE to find out more about the process.