On Thursday, Transplant Quebec published its 2016 annual statement on organ donation: “Quebec hospitals are witnessing more organ donations and fewer refusals from families”. This information is “encouraging” according to the organisation which is receiving more and more donations once treatment is stopped.
In 2016, the hospitals referred 626 potential donors, i.e. 60% more than in 2010. However, only 170 of these donors were selected allowing 480 transplants, 27 fewer than in 2015. Transplanted patients mostly received a kidney (275), liver (99), heart (46) or lungs (51).
Furthermore, the teams “improved their approach towards families in mourning” and a co-ordinating physician was appointed in 10 hospitals. In 2016, 154 families refused to donate the organs of a relative – a figure which has fallen from 26 to 21% in one year.
According to the Quebec Health Insurance and Chamber of Notaries’ Registers, many people have signed up: 4 out of ten people in Quebec recorded their official consent for organ and tissue donation in one of the two registers in 2016. Three million people in Quebec “would be prepared to donate an organ”.
For Transplant Quebec, this approach would constitute a $13 million dollar saving for the Quebec Health System.
TVA Nouvelles, Harold Gagné (9/03/2017)