Canadian Blood Services works to improve organ and tissue donation and transplantation rates
Despite Canadians’ overwhelming support for organ donation, donor rates in this country are less than half that of the best performing countries and have remained relatively flat over the last decade.
With that in mind, in April 2008 Canadian Blood Services was mandated by the Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments to develop recommendations to improve the performance of organ and tissue donation and transplantation (OTDT) in Canada. The organization has gone about that work in close collaboration with the Canadian OTDT community.
Throughout the process, thousands of stakeholders, recipients, donors, medical experts and members of the public from across the country have been consulted on the contents of a new system.
Preliminary recommendations were presented to the Deputy Ministers in December 2010, with final recommendations expected to follow in the spring.
New kidney transplant registry
In addition to developing recommendations, Canadian Blood Services was asked to develop a registry that would help facilitate more kidney transplants. In January 2009, the Living Donor Paired Exchange (LDPE) Registry was launched and has since grown into the first truly Canada-wide organ donation registry.
The registry, which facilitates transplants between those with a willing but incompatible living donor and other pairs in the same situation, has contributed to 69 kidney transplants to date, effectively removing 69 people from dialysis treatment, giving them an improved quality of life while saving millions of health-care dollars annually.
Learn more, share your thoughts!
- Please visit www.blood.ca/speakup to share your story, read the nine public dialogue reports or download the kitchen table kit to convene your own discussion on OTDT in Canada.
- Or visit www.organsandtissues/english/ldpe to learn more about the Living Donor Paired Exchange registry.
