Minster for Health Launches New Organ and Tissue Donor Agency in NSW
The NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt, today urged anyone who was considering donating their organs to talk to their family and explain their wishes.
Minister Tebbutt made the call whilst launching DonateLifeTM NSW organ donor agency, part of the NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Service (OTDS) in the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service (SESIAHS).
"Although research shows that some 90% of Australians support organ donation, as a nation our consent rate for organ donation is just 56%," said Ms Tebbutt.
"To avoid confusion at a time of great tragedy, discussing your wishes with your family can avoid great stress.
"Organ donation can be an important gift of life to severely ill patients and it is good to see Governments working together to improve organ donor rates," said Ms Tebbutt.
NSW DonateLifeTM is part of the DonateLifeTM national network of agencies established to improve opportunities for organ and tissue donation. The DonateLife network is part of the Federal Government's $151 million reform package of organ and tissue donation for transplantation.
Ms Tebbutt also announced the appointment of Associate Professor Jonathan Gillis as the NSW State Medical Director for Organ and Tissue Donation and welcomed the 10 new hospital-based Medical Directors and 12 new specialist nurses to the NSW team.
The hospital-based doctors and nurses spread across NSW will be working with local clinicians to identify potential organ donors as well as providing information and support to donor families.
NSW Health will continue to maintain their contribution of $1.2m to improve organ donation in the state.
"World's Best Practice has shown that supporting donor identification and providing support to families where organ donation occurs - at the hospital - will improve opportunities for organ and tissue donation.
"In NSW we are committed to equipping our hospital staff with the latest techniques, learning and practices to help them continue to improve donation rates in NSW.
"Already we are seeing more notifications from regional areas and in 2009 we saw a significant increase in the number of donors in NSW from 57 in 2008 to 69 in 2009.
"Through education, teamwork and communication we will continue to support health professionals to deliver better outcomes for organ donation in NSW and offer those 1700 plus Australians waiting for an organ transplant a better chance for life.
"Whilst our donors per million population have also increased from 8.4 in 2008 to 10 in 2009 there is room for greater improvement to sustain and improve our performance and bring us up to the rates of other countries.
"We are committed to providing our hospital staff with the support they need and help the people of NSW to Donate life," Ms Tebbutt said.
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