York residents urged to consider organ donation
It's Organ Donation Week (7th-13th September).
We're being urged to consider organ donation to help save lives.
York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is backing a week-long campaign to raise awareness.
14 patients received a transplant at the Trust last year, and the transplant team managed to find a donor at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year the law around organ donation in England, known as Max and Keira’s Law, moved to an opt-out system to allow more people to save more lives. All adults in England will be considered as willing to donate when they die, unless they have recorded a decision not to donate, are in one of the excluded groups or have told their family they don’t wish to donate
Dr Rob Ferguson is a Consultant in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine at York Hospital and is Clinical Lead for Organ Donation at the Trust.
Dr Ferguson said: “Every day across the UK someone dies waiting for a transplant.
“Max and Kiera’s law is a positive move in helping save lives, however we want to highlight that everyone still has a choice if they want to be an organ donor or not. We want to encourage people to find out about how the law change affects them, take the time to make their organ donation decision and most importantly share their decision with those closest to them.”
The theme of Organ Donation Week this year is to open up the discussion and get people to talk to their families about their wishes. People are being encouraged to register their decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register and to share it with their family or closest friends".