Region lags on organ donation

WITH less than one quarter of Toowoomba residents signed up to donate their organs, our region lags behind the rest of the country.

NewsRegional analysis of Australian Organ Donor Registry data shows there are just 35,259 locals listed on the Australian Organ Donor Registry.

This equates to 21 per cent of the Toowoomba population but this is 12 percentage points behind the national rate of 33 per cent.

About 1400 Australians are on the transplant waiting list.

Australia has one of the lowest organ donation rates in the world despite major regional and metropolitan centres having dedicated deceased organ donation professionals.

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service oversees the process in our region.

If a resident is declared brain dead, and if their family agrees, local surgeons can retrieve their organs.

This is done while the person’s body is still on life support.

The organs are then delivered to major transplant hospitals in Brisbane, NSW or Victoria that have matching recipients awaiting transplants.

A 2015 La Trobe University study found hospitals with high numbers of “family donation conversation-trained professionals” had significantly better donation consent rates than those without FDC experts.

“This is how the system is meant to operate but this doesn’t always happen,” ShareLife chairman Brian Myerson said. “Not all requests to deceased donor families are done by donor specialists in Australia.”

Donate Life clinical education co-ordinator Francesca Rourke said our region had professionals who were highly trained and “extremely dedicated” to supporting families through the organ donation process.