Bereaved relatives ‘blocked one in seven organ donations’

And organ-matching websites and paired donations have made living donation easier. In 2015, the country is once again ranked first in the world, even beating its own previous record.

There are now 6,578 people waiting for an organ transplant across the UK.

“It’s great news that the number of transplants continues to increase each year”, said Jennifer Martin, vice president for constituent services at the National Kidney Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group.

More than 654,500 people here have signed the NHS Organ Donor Register, accounting for 35% of the population. There are now more than 123,000 men, women, and children in the US awaiting an organ transplant.

NHSBT head Sally Johnson, said: “We are taking a tougher approach – but also a more honest approach”. However, the number of people willing to donate their organs has been steadily growing over the past 25 years. “So please talk to your relatives and tell them that should the time come, you want them to support your decision to save lives after your death”.

She added: “We have every sympathy for families – and of course we do not want to make their grief worse”.

When a family says no to organ donation, someone waiting for a transplant may miss out on their only opportunity for a transplant.

In a recent survey carried out by NHS Blood and Transplant nearly three quarters of respondents said they thought your next of kin shouldn’t be able to overrule your decision to donate after you have died.

The move comes after the Welsh Government previous year introduced an “opt out” donor register – meaning that anyone who has not formally requested that their name be removed from the list is now presumed to consent to their organs being used.

The Royal Liverpool, Aintree, and Whiston Hospitals in Merseyside have taken a new approach which has been resulting in significantly higher cornea donation rates.

The British Medical Association (BMA) argues that families should be “strongly encouraged” to respect the wishes of the deceased.

‘We urgently need to introduce the soft opt out system for organ donation across the United Kingdom to increase the number of available organs and help save more lives’.