In Devon, where 27 people lost their lives while waiting to find a donor, some 166 patients are now in line for urgent operations.
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For the first time in 11 years, the number of organ donors in the United Kingdom has fallen – by 3% in a year.
It is thought the drop is linked to fewer people dying in circumstances where they could donate and no increase in the rate of people consenting to their organs being used after death by signing to the NHS Organ Donor Register.
The total number of patients registered for a transplant residing in Wales has increased slightly, with 220 patients waiting for a transplant at the end of March this year, with a further 141 people temporarily suspended from transplant lists.
Research shows the organ donation consent rate was 48.5 per cent compared to 53.6 per cent in the previous year.
New figures showed that 98 people in the Westcountry died waiting for a transplant during the past five years while a total of 369 remain on the list.
It was sparked after it emerged that just 114 people in Yorkshire donated organs past year as around 800 people in the region await lifesaving transplants.
Figures from the Organ Donation and Transplantation Activity Report 2014/15 shows there were 4431 transplants across the United Kingdom compared with 4655 in 2013/14.
NHS Blood and Transplant, the body which published the report and leads organ donation across the United Kingdom, is now calling for the public to discuss organ donation.
In West Sussex, 12 people also benefitted from a living donor transplant, where donors gave a kidney or part of their liver.
“We can not hope to save more lives unless there is a revolution in attitudes towards organ donation”. “So we would remind everyone – tell those closest to you now if you want to donate your organs and record that decision by joining the 330,560 people from Derbyshire who are already on the NHS Organ Donor Register”.
“That’s why BHF Northern Ireland supports the introduction of a “soft opt-out” system across the United Kingdom where it’s assumed that someone is happy to donate unless they, or their family, say otherwise”.
Currently, four out of 10 families don’t give permission to donate when approached.
Sally Johnson, director of organ donation and transplantation, said: “We are truly grateful to those donors who have saved and improved lives”.
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“We understand that families are expected to consider donation in their darkest hour”. But the report says even then, 120 families felt unable to honour their loved one’s decision to donate, denying them their dying wish to save others after their death.
