RUH supports Organ Donation Week

It's Organ Donation Week (2-8 Sept) and the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust is supporting a national 'Pass it on' campaign to encourage more patients and families to talk about organ donation - and to increase the number of lives that can be saved or transformed by an organ transplant.

Five families at the RUH Trust consented to organ donation or respecting the wishes of their loved one in 2018/19, which led to at least 17 people receiving life-changing organ transplants. Many more received life-enhancing transplants through tissue donation, such as corneal and heart valve transplants.

Joanne Pattemore, RUH Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation, said: "All families should be given the opportunity to discuss organ donation and explore this option with a specialist nurse. By providing this practice the critical care teams within the RUH Trust have continued to achieve a 100% referral rate for potential donors identified within the intensive care unit and the emergency department.

"These transplants could not happen without the dedicated work and support from our colleagues within the Trust, in particular Intensive Care, ED and theatres, and more importantly the donor families who have a given us the opportunity to help others by offering the gift of life.

"Anyone can sign up to become an organ donor and it takes only a few minutes. Organ donation saves lives - to someone you can become a hero. "

Next year, the law around organ donation is changing in England. From spring 2020, all adults in England will be considered as having agreed to donate their own organs when they die unless they record a decision not to donate or are in one of the excluded groups. Families will continue to be consulted before organ donation goes ahead.

Dr Kim Gupta, consultant and RUH Clinical Lead for Organ Donation, said: "Organ donation is an act of great generosity, which gives you the opportunity to save or transform someone else's life after you have died. Individuals have the right to choose whether or not they would wish to be an organ donor, and I would encourage everyone to consider this. Whatever you decide, the best thing to do is to record whether or not you want to be an organ donor on the NHS Organ Donor Register, and then to make your choice clear to your family and closest friends to help ensure your choice is honoured."

Find out more and register your decision by visiting the NHS Organ Donor Register at www.organdonation.nhs.uk or by calling 0300 303 2094.

• NHS Blood and Transplant is a joint England and Wales Special Health Authority. We provide the blood donation service for England and the organ donation service for the UK. We also provide donated tissues, stem cells and cord blood. We are an essential part of the NHS, saving and improving lives through public donation.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

• The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire. The hospital provides healthcare to the population served by four Clinical Commissioning Groups: Bath & North East Somerset CCG, Wiltshire CCG, Somerset CCG and South Gloucestershire CCG.
• The Trust has 759 beds and a comprehensive range of acute services including medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency services, and diagnostic and clinical support services.
• In 2015 The Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust acquired the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) NHS Foundation Trust. The RNHRD treats patients from across the country offering services in rheumatology, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, cancer related fatigue and fatigue linked to other long term conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
• The RUH is changing - we have an exciting programme of redevelopment underway transforming our site and further improving the services we provide. The Trust has opened the purpose-built RNHRD and Brownsword Therapies Centre and is now working towards the new Dyson Cancer Centre. For more details visit: www.ruh.nhs.uk/fit4future

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