Provincial organ donor registry ‘a good first step,’ doctors say

In the provincial budget released March 20, the government has pledged $558,000 to create a provincial organ donor registry.

The move comes a year after the province announced the first steps toward creating a new, better donation model, including the hiring of four donor physicians sharing one halftime role as well as donor nurse co-ordinators to help facilitate donation.

Physicians support health-care workers in the donation process, are involved in building the province’s donation program and provide advocacy for conversations about donation.

Donor physician Joann Kawchuk said the registry will make organ donation easier for families.

“It’s a part of what will help that process to bring organ donation and the opportunity for donation closer to families trying to make the right decision or know what their loved one would have wanted,” she said. “So it’s a piece of the puzzle in how we improve our donation opportunity for people in this province.”

In 2017, Saskatchewan’s rate of donation from deceased donors was 14.6 donors per million population. That was a 20 per cent increase from 12.2 in 2016, but still among the lowest in Canada.

Luke Jakiw, director of hospitals and specialized services for the Ministry of Health, said in January that while final numbers aren’t available for 2018, it looks like the deceased donation rate was close to that of 2017. A statement from the Ministry of Health said that continues to be the case.

Stephen Beed, a Halifax-based critical care physician who has worked rotating shifts in Saskatoon’s ICU for the past three years, said a significant amount of work remains.

“If I was to put a list of things that would help us get better on the table, a registry would be on that list, but it wouldn’t be in the top couple,” he said.

“I think engagement and support of the critical care community is the single most important thing. You can only make so much progress if you’re just chipping away at one part. And if you don’t have core components of the system on board, it doesn’t matter what you do.”

Beed recently finished a 10-year term as chair of Canadian Blood Services’ Deceased Donation Advisory Committee. He and Kawchuk were the physicians in the unit for the week after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash. They were the ones who pronounced the death of Logan Boulet, the Broncos player whose donated organs helped six people.

Beed said many of the criteria that need to be in place to support a successful donation system either are not present in Saskatchewan or have a way to go. To significantly increase the numbers, a systemic overhaul is necessary, he said.

“You need to have institutional buy-in for the value of donation. What I mean by that is if you say that you’re a donation hospital, the message from the top down has to be that this is a priority. “

An auditing system to identify missed donation opportunities, including donation in medical and nursing school curricula and residencies and the creation of an education platform for the public and health care communities are further steps that can make a donation system successful, he added.ashort@postmedia.com