Organ Donation

There are more than 7,000 people across the UK waiting for a donor organ, with someone dying every day while they wait. By registering your decision on the organ donor register and telling your family, you may be able to help someone after your death. The lives of hundreds of transplant patients are saved or changed for the better each year because of these donations.

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust has an active organ and tissue donation policy. We believe organ and tissue donation should be considered for all patients who die in circumstances where donation may be a possibility.

Patients who are ventilated at the end of life may be able to donate their organs after death. The majority of these patients are cared for in the Intensive Care Unit, but some may be in the Emergency Department or Higher Monitoring Unit.

Organs and tissues that can be donated include:

•    heart
•    lungs
•    liver
•    kidneys
•    pancreas
•    corneas
•    skin
•    bone
•    tendons
•    blood vessels

The Opt Out system

On 20 May 2020, the law around organ donation in England was changed to allow more people to save more lives.

NHS Blood and Transplant have created an animation explaining the opt out system.

Now it will be considered that you agree to become an organ donor when you die, if:
•    you are over 18;
•    you have not opted out;
•    you are not in an excluded group

You still have a choice whether or not you want to become an organ donor, and can register or amend your decision at any time. Your name is not automatically on the Organ Donor Register.

By sharing your wishes with your family, it can help them to support your decision around organ donation at what is already a difficult time.

Steph Barnden Specialist Organ Donation Nurse at the Trust said: “By talking to your loved ones about organ donation, you can give them the certainty to know that you will support their decision.”

“Letting your family know what you want to happen when you die will make it much easier if there comes a time when organ donation is a possibility. Even now the law has changed, your loved ones will still always be consulted before organ donation goes ahead. Please don’t wait. Speak to your family about organ donation and let them know your decision today – leave them certain.”

To register your donation decision, please telephone 0300 123 2323 or visit the organ donation website.

Sharing experiences

For Organ Donation week in 2024 we heard from two amazing sets of people. Sidney and his daughter Kelly on their experience of being a living donor. And we also heard from sisters Helen and Debs who shared their brother Stephen's donor story. 

Tissue donation

Every year many hundreds of lives are improved through the use of tissues donated after someone dies. Eye donation may give someone the gift of sight, skin donation can provide grafts for patients with severe burns, heart valve donation can also save lives of patients with cardiac conditions.

There are some conditions that prevent donations taking place and donations must take place within 48 hours of the person dying (24 hours for eye tissues).

If you think that the person who has died carried a donor card, was registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register, or would want to donate tissue to change the lives of others, please speak with the clinical staff or call the National Referral Centre on 0800 432 0559 who will discuss this further with you.

Tissue donation will not delay any funeral arrangements and, because great care is taken to restore the patient’s natural appearance, it will still be possible to arrange a viewing after the donation has taken place.

Contact us

For all clinical referrals and advice regarding potential organ donation, please contact the organ donor referral line on 03000 20 30 40.

For all tissue donation enquiries, please contact the National Referral Centre on 0800 432 0559.