A TOP transplant surgeon has backed calls for an opt-out system to be implemented to increase organ donation levels.

Dr Rutger Ploeg, of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, said "it would be wonderful" if people had to opt-out of donating their organs, adding it could save more lives.

The Oxford University academic joined with members of the British Medical Association in lobbying the Government to implement the system to curb the shortage of organs currently available for patients.

Dr Ploeg said enough people do not sign up to the current opt-in for organ donation system.

He added: "We all know that people do not like to think about their death. Becoming a donor is very simple, but people somehow do not do it. It's psychological.

"It could save more lives. If you ask people at your local supermarket what do you think about transplants, they will say it's great.

"If you ask them if they would like to have a kidney from someone else they will say yes, but then ask if they would sign up to be a donor, they tell you they'll think about it."

Currently the UK has an opt-in organ donation system where a person has to register their consent to donate their organs in the event of their death.

Dr Ploeg added it would help if the UK had a similar system to Belgium where a person can say no to being a donor and even when they die, their family can say refuse on their behalf.

Grandmother Jill Edwards, 74, received a heart transplant in 1990 at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex after suffering chest pains.

She sent a letter to David Cameron pushing for the system to be put in place, who responded to say a trial in Wales was being monitored before a decision would be made..

Mrs Edwards, a mother-of-three, added it was better for organs to be used for patients who need them rather than be "buried in the ground".

The Carterton resident said: "There have been so many young people who have died because they have not been able to get the opportunity I have.

"There is a terrible shortage and over the years it's got progressively worse.

"Do not take your organs to heaven, heaven knows we need them here."

Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA’s medical ethics committee, said: "As a doctor it is difficult to see your patients dying and suffering when their lives could be saved or dramatically improved by a transplant.

"It is even more difficult when we know that lives are being lost unnecessarily because of poor organisation, lack of funding or because people who are willing to donate organs after their death simply never get around to making their views known."

People can register to donate by visiting www.organdonation.nhs.uk