Hospitals in Germany must do more to procure organs, says report
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《英国医生杂志》
Hospital managers in Germany need to be reminded of their obligations to find organs for transplantation, says a parliamentary report.
The report, Advancement of Organ Donation, comes after a series of formal written questions from opposition parties into the state of organ donation in Germany. It admits, however, that participating in organ donation programmes can leave hospitals out of pocket, because the intensive care costs are often not fully covered.
At the moment only 40% of Germany抯 1379 hospitals with intensive care beds report potential organ donors to the Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, the central German organ procurement agency, according to an article published online in the German Medical Journal (Deutsches 膔zteblatt) on 4 February (www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/artikel.asp?id=45218).
Hospitals are legally obliged to report potential donors, but no sanctions are imposed if they don抰. The government does not want to impose sanctions, says the report. Instead, the report suggests that the federal states, which are legally responsible for the hospitals, should motivate them to report—for instance, by encouraging them to compete for the organ donation awards, such as those currently given to the most active hospitals in Bavaria.
Organ donation in Germany has been stagnating since 1995. But the German government has no plans to amend the 1997 transplant law, the report states. As the law stands, if the deceased person doesn抰 hold a donor card close relatives can decide on organ donation.
The government admits that the law has not increased the number of organs transplanted but says that it has provided a legal and organisational framework for the procurement and allocation of organs, and it has served to educate the public about what抯 involved.
Preliminary figures from the procurement agency indicate that the number of transplantations peaked in Germany in 2003, when 4175 were carried out, but fell again last year.
In 2003, with about 13.8 post mortem organ donors per million of the population Germany抯 figures were about average for European countries, lagging behind Spain (33.8 per million) and Belgium (23.9 per million), but ahead of the United Kingdom (12.1 per million) and Switzerland (13.2 per million). However, almost 14 000 Germans are still waiting for a kidney, liver, heart, lung, or pancreas transplant.
The opposition has also criticised the lack of public information on organ donation, the annual budget for which has declined from �2.2m (?.5m; $2.9m) in 1998, when the first major public campaign in Germany was launched, to about �0.5m in 2004.
In about half of the cases when the deceased person does not carry a donor card the relatives refuse to donate the deceased抯 organs. Yet recent opinion polls indicate that public approval of organ donation is between 70% and 80%.(Heidelberg Annette Tuffs)
The report, Advancement of Organ Donation, comes after a series of formal written questions from opposition parties into the state of organ donation in Germany. It admits, however, that participating in organ donation programmes can leave hospitals out of pocket, because the intensive care costs are often not fully covered.
At the moment only 40% of Germany抯 1379 hospitals with intensive care beds report potential organ donors to the Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, the central German organ procurement agency, according to an article published online in the German Medical Journal (Deutsches 膔zteblatt) on 4 February (www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/artikel.asp?id=45218).
Hospitals are legally obliged to report potential donors, but no sanctions are imposed if they don抰. The government does not want to impose sanctions, says the report. Instead, the report suggests that the federal states, which are legally responsible for the hospitals, should motivate them to report—for instance, by encouraging them to compete for the organ donation awards, such as those currently given to the most active hospitals in Bavaria.
Organ donation in Germany has been stagnating since 1995. But the German government has no plans to amend the 1997 transplant law, the report states. As the law stands, if the deceased person doesn抰 hold a donor card close relatives can decide on organ donation.
The government admits that the law has not increased the number of organs transplanted but says that it has provided a legal and organisational framework for the procurement and allocation of organs, and it has served to educate the public about what抯 involved.
Preliminary figures from the procurement agency indicate that the number of transplantations peaked in Germany in 2003, when 4175 were carried out, but fell again last year.
In 2003, with about 13.8 post mortem organ donors per million of the population Germany抯 figures were about average for European countries, lagging behind Spain (33.8 per million) and Belgium (23.9 per million), but ahead of the United Kingdom (12.1 per million) and Switzerland (13.2 per million). However, almost 14 000 Germans are still waiting for a kidney, liver, heart, lung, or pancreas transplant.
The opposition has also criticised the lack of public information on organ donation, the annual budget for which has declined from �2.2m (?.5m; $2.9m) in 1998, when the first major public campaign in Germany was launched, to about �0.5m in 2004.
In about half of the cases when the deceased person does not carry a donor card the relatives refuse to donate the deceased抯 organs. Yet recent opinion polls indicate that public approval of organ donation is between 70% and 80%.(Heidelberg Annette Tuffs)