Spain is to lead on EU policy on organ donation and transplantation
Spain will take the lead on improving the training of transplant coordinators under a European Union directive published last year aimed at setting uniform quality and safety standards andimproving waiting times for transplants (BMJ 2010;340:c2785, doi:10.1136/bmj.c2785). The training programmes for transplant coordinators, organised by the Spanish National Transplant Organisation (ONT) together with the Andalusian Public Foundation for the Advancement of Technology and Professional Training, aims to expand the Spanish model of organ donation and transplantation, said Rafael Matesanz, director of ONT, at a conference at the Menéndez Pelayo International University in Santander.The training programmes will be based on a Spanish good practice guide published last year that is already speeding up the number of donations and transplantations being carried out, even though the number of brain stem dead donors is going down (BMJ 2011;342:d2181,doi:10.1136/bmj.d2181; 2011;342:d3572,doi:10.1136/bmj.d3572).
The plan is to create a network of coordinators across Europe who can then instruct other coordinators in their own countries, Dr Matesanz told the BMJ. The first course will begin with two sessions in September and November and will be completed through an online training programme. Around 80 professionals will attend the sessions, three to four from each member state. ONT has wide experience in instructing trainers, with 250 coordinators being trained throughout Latin America, said Dr Matesanz. The European Commission has also chosen Spain to lead its project on achieving comprehensive coordination in organ donation throughout the European Union (ACCORD), which has three sub-programmes, each coordinated by one country with expertise in a particular field, Dr Matesanz explained. The United Kingdom will work on improving collaboration between transplant coordinators and intensive care professionals. France will work on improving patient records that can provide comparable data to facilitate the exchange of best practice among European countries. And the Netherlands will promote live donations. All member states have joined at least one of those programmes, said Dr Matesanz. “It is a way of building a common transplantation policy,” he added.
Dr Matesanz also announced that the number of hospitals taking part in the Spanish donation after cardiac death programme will rise from seven to 18. Currently 9.5% of all Spanish donations come through the programme, mostly from large cities such as Madrid or Barcelona, but the goal is to involve smaller cities and to increase the percentage of donations coming through the programme to 20% or 25%. Spain remains the world leader in numbers of organ donations and transplantations, with around 30 000 Spanish families donating organs over the past 20 years. The Ministry of Health says that they have saved or improved the quality of life of around 70 000 people. The World Health Organization’s strategy to extend the Spanish model across the globe under the resolution of Madrid was agreed in March 2010 after a conference on organ donation and transplantation held in the Spanish capital (BMJ 2010;340:c1758, doi:10.1136/bmj.c1758). The strategy, published last month in Transplantation (2011;91:S27-8, doi:10. 1097/01.tp.0000399131.74618.a5), urges countries to achieve self sufficiency in the supply of organs so as to eliminate organ sale and trafficking.
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