The NHS could not supply around one in five (20 per cent) of heart valve requests from hospitals last year, according to new figures from NHS Blood and Transplant.
This comes after a dip in the number of hearts donated to heart valve banks, with 600 hearts donated in 2021 and just 368 donated in 2024.
Officials say the shortage is continuing this year.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) officials said: “We are just not getting enough donations to meet demand.”
It is calling on people to support tissue donation on the NHS Organ Donor Register and to support heart valve donation if a loved one dies in circumstances where donation is possible.
Heart valve replacements are needed when a person’s heart valve is damaged, diseased or defective.
These valves control blood flow through the heart’s four chambers.
Patients include adults, whose heart valves can begin to narrow or leak, and children with genetic heart disorders.
Jackie Brander, head of operations for tissue donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said heart valves can be especially important for babies born with genetic heart defects.
She said: “We think there are several reasons why heart valve donation has decreased.
“Organ and tissue donation as a whole has fallen – last year, for example there were 100 fewer organ donors.
“Also, since the pandemic, more people are dying at home or in the community, where heart valve donation is not possible.”
“We’re investigating whether there might be other reasons, but what we really need is for more people to support donation – you will change and save lives.”
Poppy Wilson, who had a heart valve replacement in June 2025 at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, said how grateful she was to her donor’s family.
She said: “It was a gradual deterioration. I was increasingly symptomatic and it became difficult to climb stairs.
“Without surgery, I would have gone into heart failure or suffered a cardiac arrest.”
