OUR PROGRAM As agreed by the Council of Australian Governments in 2008, the Organ and Tissue Authority (OTA) is tasked with implementing the Australian Government’s national reform program for organ and tissue donation for transplantation. We measure our success in achieving our outcomes in a number of ways. One of measures is the reporting of our performance against the deliverables and the key performance indicators for Outcome 1 and Program 1.1 in the Health Portfolio Budget Statements. OUTCOME 1 Improved access to organ and tissue transplants, including through a nationally coordinated and consistent approach and system PROGRAM 1.1 A nationally coordinated system for organ and tissue donation for transplantation
INFORMATION AUSTRALIA’S POTENTIAL ORGAN DONOR POPULATION Not everyone can be a deceased organ donor: particular circumstances must prevail in order for a patient to be medically suitable for donation. Deceased organ donation is only possible from a sub-set of end-of-life events that occur in intensive care units or hospital emergency departments. Most of these deaths are sudden, unexpected and unpredictable. By way of example (see Figure 3), in 2016 the Australian population was 24,127,159. Of the 159,052 deaths occurring, 76,577 deaths occurred in hospitals. Of deaths in hospitals, 1,177 occurred in the specific circumstances where there was the potential for organ and tissue donation. In Australia, families of potential donors are asked to confirm the decision of their loved one. Requests to families for donation were made in 1,074 cases, with 646 consented donors (60%) proceeding to donation. The main reasons for families declining donation were that they believed their loved one did not want to donate, or they did not like the idea of organ donation. In 143 cases where family consent was given, donation did not proceed for a number of reasons, including the identification of a medical contraindication preventing organ transplantation. The resulting 503 deceased organ donors transformed the lives of 1,447 transplant recipients, enabling 1,508 organ transplant procedures where 1,687 organs were transplanted. Eye and tissue donation does not require the donor’s death to have occurred under the same limited circumstances as organ donation. It is possible to store eyes and tissue for varying periods of time, so many more people become eye and tissue donors than become organ donors after their death.
DECEASED ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION AND DONATION OUTCOMES In 2016 a record 1,447 lives were saved and transformed through the generosity of 503 deceased organ donors and their families. When compared with 2015 figures, Australia’s 2016 outcomes represent: » a 17% increase in the number of transplant recipients (1,447 recipients in 2016, compared with 1,239 in 2015) » a 16% increase in the number of deceased organ donors (503 donors in 2016, compared with 435 in 2015). FIGURE 4: Deceased organ transplant recipients and donors 2009, 2015 and 2016 2016 2015 2009 Transplant recipients 1,500 1,447 900 600 300 81% 2009 vs. 2016 17% 2015 vs. 2016 1,239 799 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Deceased organ donors 600 500 503 400 300 104% 2009 vs. 2016 16% 2015 vs. 2016 435 247 100 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec