Not meeting demand for saving lives
HAVE A CHAT WITH YOUR FAMILY AND SIGN UP TO BE AN ORGAN DONOR
ORGAN donation plummeted about 25 per cent in Australia during the Covid pandemic, declining for the first time since the national transplant program was established in 2009.
The nation’s organ transplant waitlist also blew out to a 10-year high, surpassing 1900 people in December, according to OrganMatch. It currently sits at about 1750.
Authorities are urging the 13 million Australians aged 16plus who are eligible to register as organ and tissue donors, but haven’t, to take one minute to sign up and save lives.
Organ and Tissue Authority chief executive Lucinda Barry said the pandemic’s impact on Australia’s transplant program had also caused a 19 per cent decline in the number of transplant recipients.
Challenges had included transporting organs across the country, with border closures and a significant reduction in domestic flights, and some DonateLife staff being unable to have difficult donation conversations with families face-toface.
“The transplant units have also had to weigh up the safety of somebody coming into a hospital to get a transplant during this time,” Ms Barry said.
“We are still living with Covid, so there are so many impacts still occurring.
“An organ transplant is absolutely life-enhancing, lifechanging and for many, lifesaving. For people on the waitlist who need a transplant, they need more Australians to register to be an organ donor at the end of their life.”
The 2022 Great Registration Race has kicked off with the aim of encouraging at least 100,000 people to take the one minute required to join the Australian Organ Donor Register.
The Race runs throughout July and August, ramping up in DonateLife Week from July 24-31.
Ms Barry said registering was as simple as filling out a short form on the DonateLife website with your name, date of birth, postcode and Medicare details, or making “three taps on your Medicare app”.
One organ donor can save up to seven lives, and help many more through eye and tissue donation.
After registering, it was crucial people informed their families, Ms Barry said.
“We know nine out of 10 times, a family will say yes to donation if their loved one is a registered donor,” she said.
“If you’re not on the register and your family don’t know what you want, this drops to four out of 10.”
Ms Barry emphasised that anyone aged 16 and above could register, noting: “You’re never too old, you’re never too unhealthy.”
“Some people believe doctors won’t try and save you if you’re registered as a donor,” she added. “This is a myth. Donation is not even considered, and the register is not even looked at, until it has been determined you won’t survive.”
Only 2 per cent of the 80,000 people who die in Australian hospitals each year can be considered for organ donation.
In 2021, after families were consulted and eligibility was assessed, this left 421 deceased organ donors who helped 1174 transplant recipients.
Both figures were down on the year prior.
Of the 1750 people on the organ waiting list, more than three quarters need a new kidney, while about 13,000 additional people are on dialysis.
Professor Kate Wyburn, president-elect of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand, said the waitlist only provided a “snapshot” of the people experiencing organ failure.
“It’s a complex, dynamic structure that people come on and off for all sorts of reasons,” she said.
“And there are so many reasons for someone to develop organ failure, it’s people from all walks of life. There are babies right through to one or two people in their 80s on the kidney transplant waiting list.
“It’s incredibly important (to register).”