Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to have the remainder of my speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The incorporated speech read as follows—

A 1991 study found that 509 of families of potential donors were never asked about donation because the medical staff on hand did not consider organ donation a possibility.

We have come some way to address this issue, and a 2006 study found that about 209 of potential donors in Victorian hospitals were missed.

Evidence from here and abroad suggests that effective donor identification programs in hospitals can result in considerable increase in organ donations.

After opting to implement some features of the ‘Spanish-based model’ of organ identification program in 1996, South Australia saw a rise in donations from 14 donors per million to 24 donors per million in 1998.

Since then South Australia’s rate of donation has been around 20 donors per million—double the nation’s average of 10 donors per million.

The South Australian model involves medical donor coordinators identifying potential donors in hospitals who, together with the transplant coordinators, discuss with families the deceased wishes about organ donation. This type of support is essential not only to help identify potential donors but also to assist grieving families through what can be a difficult period. I would personally advocate the implementation of a standardised program based on the South Australian model, in ultimately all Australian hospitals. As the South Australian example proves, such a program has the potential to lift organ donation rates in Australia and thus save more Australian lives.

I understand that the Australian Health Ministers’ Council recently agreed to continue funding for the National Organ Donor Collaborative until at least June 2009. The National Organ Donor Collaborative was launched in 2006 and has delivered very promising results.

The Collaborative involves training hospital teams in 26 hospitals throughout Australia in collective learning, enabling best practice to be replicated within their hospital. The Collaborative has been endorsed by health professionals as a major initiative for organ donation. It is seen as a means of developing networks and linkages across states and hospitals; between ICU, emergency and donor agencies; and between organ, eye and tissue donation. It provides an opportunity for diverse health professionals to work together, focused solely on donation.

Over the coming months I very much look forward to the two reports due to be handed down in Tasmania and on a national level which are set to consider these issues in more detail. As I stated earlier I am more than prepared to support any measure that results in the rate of organ donation in Australia increase in the future.

In the meantime I commend all those working in the sector for the tireless work that they put in each year to promote this worthy cause. I would eagerly encourage each of my colleagues to support them in their up and coming National Organ Donation Awareness week campaign—I know that I certainly will be.