Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Siewert for her question. We have already made very good progress in laying the foundation for change in public hospitals. That is the first step in meeting that first requirement. We have appointed over 150 staff dedicated to improving Australia’s donation rates in 76 major public hospitals around the country and we have established organ and tissue donation agencies with specialist organ donor coordinators in all jurisdictions. We have launched a clinical trigger tool in hospitals across the country to assist clinical staff in the identification of potential donors and we have developed a new funding stream for hospitals to ensure costs are not a barrier to organ donations. To complement the work in hospitals, the Organ and Tissue Authority is also tackling the required change in community perception which, as I said, was the second area we have to address. To do that, we are launching a national advertising campaign in May 2010 to promote the need for families— (Time expired)