Awareness of Wales’ new soft opt-out organ donation law is on the increase, a new survey has revealed.
In a Welsh Government survey of 1,000 people, 59% said they were aware of the legislation coming into effect in December 2015. In the South Wales Valleys, the figure was 55%.
The survey was carried out in November last year and showed an increase of two percentage points against a similar survey carried out in June.
Health Minister Mark Drakeford said: “It’s fantastic to see that awareness of the new system is growing across Wales as a whole. There is still work to be done, and now that we have our new public awareness campaign up and running, we hope to see these figures continuing to increase further.
“Organ donation saves lives, and with such a high number of people’s lives ‘on a clock’ waiting for an organ donor, we hope this change to the organ donation law in Wales will help people on the donor waiting list by increasing the number of organs available for transplant.
“The new legislation is coming into effect on 1 December 2015, and it’s our job to ensure members of the public are fully informed on what the changes will mean and the choices they can make.
“We will continue to gather regular information on public awareness and understanding of organ donation law to help inform our public awareness campaign.”
The new organ donation legislation, passed last year, will come into force on December 1 2015.
Under the new system, a person will have to opt out of the donation register if they do not want their organs donated after their death.
The number of respondents who said they would would opt out decreased by from 20 percent in June’s survey to 15 percent in November’s.
There was also small decrease in the proportion of people who said they were in favour of the change in legislation, from 61% in June to 57% in November.
An advertising campaign explaining the changes was launched at the beginning of the year.
Called ‘It’s About Time’, the publicity campaign has focused on digital platforms and will roll out to traditional media across Wales.
Another intrusive law passed affecting us all. Forcing us to do something after death unless we go out of our way to say "no". A referendum on legislation of this magnitude would have been nice.
As for the survey…1000 people? The uncertainty when you take into account the entire population, is so great that you could reasonably argue there was no change in the statistics. The overlaps involved in the two figures quoted from the two surveys that took place is massive.
I suppose a supporter of low taxation such as Dean would have welcomed a costly referendum?
I would have done, Vic. Especially with an issue so great. The referendum could have been funded through cuts supporting Welsh language learning.
Lobby your local Plaid Cymru Councillor Dean.
It is body snatching pure and simple.
If the nhs in wales wasn't so bad then people wouldn't' worry about donating organs. People shouldn't have the fear of a quicker death just to satisfy the demand for organs.