THE NUMBER of organ donors has fallen in recent years despite public awareness campaigns about the need for donations, the Irish Kidney Association has warned.
The association’s chief executive Mark Murphy said 81 deceased donors provided 214 organs for transplant last year, while there were 88 donors in 2007 and 91 the previous year.
He was speaking at the launch of Organ Donor Awareness Week 2009, which begins on Saturday.
“There are about 600 people on transplant pools awaiting the phone call. Many more people would be put on those pools if the donors could be found,” he said.
Mr Murphy said about 1,000 people could be listed if there was a reasonable chance that they would get a transplant. “However, with the deceased donor figures at 19 per million of population, there is currently little point in listing these people for a transplant that is unlikely to happen.”
Mr Murphy said Ireland’s organ donor rates could be improved significantly if “cardiac death donors” were considered as an extra source of organs.
“Cardiac death donors are currently not considered in Ireland, whereas in the Netherlands this source represents 41 per cent of donors and in the UK 23 per cent of donors are from this extra source.”
Mr Murphy thanked Minister for Health Mary Harney and the broadcaster Ryan Tubridy for attending the launch in the Mansion House, Dublin, yesterday. Tubridy features in the publicity campaign.
Ms Harney said she hoped new legislation relating to organ donation would be published before the end of the year. She said Ireland had a relatively high rate of organ donation, but more people needed to be encouraged.
Organ donor cards can be obtained by texting the word DONOR to 50050 or telephoning the association on 1-890-543639. They are available from pharmacies, GPs and Citizen Information Offices.
