Plan to increase organ donors

October 11, 2004

By Jenique Millington

Within the next 18 months legislation would be brought to Parliament to legalise cadaveric transplantation.

Announcing this was minister of Health, Jerome Walcott, as he made the feature address during the opening of the Barbados Kidney Association Semi-nar titled "Expanding Horizons in Kidney Transplantation" held at the Amaryllis Hotel in Hastings yesterday.

Saying that relevant legislation had not been enacted to allow organs to be transplanted from cadavers, he indicated that this could help to relieve the problem of shortages of donors.

Nevertheless, Walcott stated that due to societal constraints, a massive education and sensitisation programme would be launched to deal with this.

"It has not been the norm to donate organs whether during life or death in our country," he said, noting that in some cases families preferred to keep a deceased relative's body intact and therefore were against the notion of donating organs.

"I would however like to see us reach that stage in the not too distant future, whereby cadaveric transplants of various organs can be done to recipients in need," he said.

He continued, "I envisage in the future that persons, could make living wills whereby they would donate their organs for transplants where needed".

Stating that development of a viable transplant programme remained a priority for the ministry, he noted that ten transplants have been performed to date, eight of which had been successful.

He remarked that the development of a kidney transplantation unit in Barbados to effectively service those in need of transplants required the co-ordinated efforts of the Ministry of Health, the Barbados Kidney Association, other non-governmental organisations, the private sector, pharmaceutical, laboratory and social services.

Quoting figures on the dialysed treatments recorded, Walcott said last year's figures stood at 12,762 compared to 2002's 11,932.

According to him, last year 85 patients were diagnosed with the disease between ages 30 and 55, and this showed "the impact on human resources and national productivity since the majority of patients on this treatment are in their most productive years".

Copyright © 2000 Barbados Advocate.

This article posted November 9, 2004.