Central agency tipped to boost organ donations

Setting up a national agency to run the country's organ donor programme is reportedly to be included in a plan Health Minister Annette King will present to Government ministers today.

New Zealand has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world. Patients have to wait up to 30 months for a transplant.

The Sunday Star-Times reported yesterday that an action plan is expected to include the establishment of a national agency to run the country's organ donor programme, consultation on whether law changes are needed to ensure family members and doctors comply with donors' wishes after death, and a public education campaign.

Since 1993, the organ donor rate has fluctuated between 34 and 46 donors a year. As many as 350 people are on the waiting list for organ transplants, mostly kidneys.

Donation rates among Maori and Pacific Islanders are the worst - of the 389 dead donors in the past decade only four were Pacific Islanders and 13 Maori. Ethnicity matters because of differing tissue types.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact Maori and Pacific Islanders are more likely to need organ transplants, because a disproportionate number suffer renal disease and need dialysis.

Ms King said that former All Black Jonah Lomu, who is waiting for a kidney transplant, would be an excellent role model for promoting organ donation.

Lomu could be confined to a wheelchair if a donor is not found soon.

- NZPA