How long is the wait for a heart?
This page provides general guidance on average waiting times, but every patient is different. Your waiting time may be much shorter or longer
Key points
- The average wait for a deceased donor heart transplant in the UK depends how unwell you are, and whether you’re on the Urgent or Super-Urgent list
- Patients on the Super-Urgent list have the shortest wait but are critically ill
- It also depends on your Blood Group and height and weight
- If you have antibodies that may react with the donor heart, your wait is likely to be prolonged
- Your transplant team will try to predict how long you might wait for a heart
What is the average wait for a heart transplant?
For patients who are initially placed on the routine list, the average wait for a deceased donor heart transplant in the UK is 18-24 months.
This includes those patients who deteriorated and were transferred to the urgent list.
Some patients wait much longer than average, some wait a shorter time. Patients on the super-urgent list have the shortest wait but are critically ill.
Children and young people
Waiting times for children and young people can vary, but on average children wait longer for organs than adults. This is especially true for the youngest patients, as finding a suitable donor for these patients can be difficult.
The average waiting time for children on the non-urgent list is over 2 years, and even those children who are urgently listed may wait more than a year for a transplant. As the number of children being transplanted is on average smaller than the number of adults being transplanted, we do not have a tool to predict individual waiting times.
