New hard-hitting organ donation advert launched by the Welsh Government.

A hard-hitting advertisement which shows an individuals choice to donate his organs being over-ridden by family members has been launched by the Welsh Government.

Data published by NHS Blood and Transplant showed there were 21 cases in Wales last year where families either overrode their relatives’ decisions to donate organs, or didn’t support the deemed consent.

With an average of 3.1 organs retrieved per donor in Wales in 2016-17, this could have resulted in as many as 65 additional transplants.

On 1 December 2015, Wales was the first country in the UK to move to a soft opt-out system of consent to organ donation.

This means that if a person has not registered a decision to become an organ donor (opted in) or a decision not to become an organ donor (opted out), they will be considered as having no objection to being an organ donor – this is known as deemed consent.

However, if individuals don’t tell their family of their decision to donate, the family may not honour that decision and over-ride the organ donor registration or not support deemed consent.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said:

We want to encourage everyone across Wales to talk with their loved ones about their organ donation decision.  We know awareness and understanding is increasing, but it is really important we reach the Welsh public on this issue.

We have  seen huge improvements in our consent rates, in March 2013 they were just 50% but in March 2017 they increased to 64%, however while there are people dying waiting for their transplant we must work harder to further increase the consent rate to have a significant impact on reducing transplant waiting lists.

Your family will be involved in any discussions about organ donation if, when you die, you are in a position to donate your organs. This could make an already difficult time more stressful if families have never discussed organ donation.

I encourage everyone across Wales to talk to their loved ones about their organ donation decision to ensure they will honour it.