Urgent call for organ ‘donor coordinators’

SPECIAL “donor coordinators” charged with speaking with relatives of possible organ donors who have died should be introduced, the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) said yesterday at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week.

The IKA’s chief executive Mark Murphy made the comments after it emerged that 243 organ transplants took place in Ireland last year thanks to 90 deceased organ donors.

Another 18 living donor transplants took place in 2009, but there are more than 600 people in Ireland awaiting life-saving transplant operations.

Some 19 children are among 1,679 kidney patients receiving dialysis treatment, and Mr Murphy said changes could be made to the system to boost the number of donors.

“We have 20 donors per million of population, Spain has 35 per million of population,” he said.

“In Spain they have dedicated trained personnel, donor coordinators, for asking the families of those who have just died [if they would donate an organ].

“The whole of Europe is going in this direction.”

He said an organ donor computer registry and increased discussion at family level could also help with increasing the number of people donating organs.

An EU directive addressing many issues is expected to be voted on in Europe on April 20, which would open the way for Ireland to adopt similar programmes.

Organ Donor Awareness Week takes place this year from March 27 to April 3. At yesterday’s launch, attended by Minister of State in the Department of Health Aine Brady and Ryan Tubridy of RTÉ, Mark Murphy said crossover transplantation with British hospitals had proved vital.

“Ireland has no paediatric, liver, heart and lung transplant programmes and we rely entirely on the UK health service to supply this expertise in transplantation to Irish children. Although a very small number of Cystic Fibrosis patients received their double lung transplants in Ireland, more Irish CF patients continue to be transplanted in the UK.”

He said the IKA was also disappointed at the slowness of government in moving legislation on the proposed new Irish Human Tissue Act, after public consultation found that 29 of the 30 organisations involved expressed support for a position of “informed consent”, as opposed to an “opt out” policy.

The Beaumont Hospital received praise after it was revealed 154 deceased donor kidney transplant were carried out there, in addition to 22 extra kidney transplants via living donors, and the first pancreas alone transplant since 2003.

Mr Brady said “raising the subject of organ donation can be very difficult for families when a loved one is critically ill or has just passed away. “However, the families of those patients waiting for a transplant are also facing very difficult circumstances and the gift of an organ donation can potentially save another life.”

* www.ika.ie

* LoCall 1890 543639

* Freetext DONOR to 50050