The number of organ donors has been steadily declining. The decreasing activity of hospitals in acquiring them is also not helping, we read in Gazeta Prawna. The statistics are not optimistic: in 2018, there were 638 reported donors and 479 used donors. Five years earlier, these numbers were much higher and amounted to 775 and 574.
According to the law, in Poland, the authorities can be collected from anyone who did not raise an objection in a special register during their lifetime. In practice, however, doctors always ask for consent. When they do not receive it, they usually give up, which results in fewer transplants.
– Although there is a presumed consent, we prefer it to be done with respect for the will of relatives. I believe that this ultimately builds greater social trust in transplantology. It is not only medical knowledge that counts, but there is a strong emotional charge in it, which I would call mystical, says the director of the Warsaw institution in Gazeta Prawna.
A 7-year-old boy had five organs transplanted at once
Statistics show a clear decline. In 2018, there were 137 donors reported than in 2013. The data for the first six months of this year do not indicate a change – a downward trend is visible, both in terms of the total number of donors and organs donated.
Although people realize that transplants save lives, too little is said about them. Hospitals, whose activity in notifying potential donors is declining, are also not helping. In 2018, the number of the most active facilities, from which 10 or more actual donors were reported, was only 13. According to the Ministry of Health, it is alarming that hospitals that were among the most active in recent years were out of the list in 2018 – we read in «GP».
How is the Ministry of Health dealing with the problem? This year, it has allocated PLN 3,8 million to finance the National Program for the Development of Transplant Medicine. These funds are to be used mainly to finance the activities of coordinators and to organize specialist training courses. In the years 2019-2020, it is also planned to train medical personnel in communication skills regarding the collection of organs for transplantation.
Truths and myths about transplantation
You can read more in «Gazeta Prawna»