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Clinical Taskforce Mid-Term Report

13th August 2007

Australian Health Ministers Conference

JOINT COMMUNIQUE

24^th July 2007

HEALTH MINISTERS AGREE TO PROGRESS THE NATIONAL REFORM AGENDA ON ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION

All Australian Health Ministers, meeting in Sydney today, have agreed to progress the National Reform Agenda on Organ and Tissue Donation to improve donation rates to help meet the ever increasing demand for organs and tissues.

At todays Australian Health Ministers Conference (AHMC), Ministers received the Mid-Term Report from the National Clinical Taskforce on Organ and Tissue Donation (the Taskforce). The Report presents an initial series of recommendations covering a broad range of issues considered crucial to achieving increased donation rates in Australia.

The Taskforce was established in October 2006, by the Commonwealth Minister for Health and Ageing for the period to December 2007, to provide evidence based advice on ways to improve the rate of safe, effective and ethical organ and tissue donation for transplantation in Australia.

The Taskforces advice will also be considered by all Australian jurisdictions under the framework of the National Reform Agenda on Organ and Tissue Donation, agreed to by all Health Ministers in July 2006.

The Report includes fifteen recommendations relating to six key areas for action that the Taskforce considers essential to achieving national reform in the sector:

1. Community awareness and donor registration;

2. Hospital processes and procedures;

3. Eye and tissue banking;

4. Information collection and activity reporting;

5. Transplant waiting lists and organ allocation systems; and

6. Reform of the National organisational infrastructure.

Implementation of a number of recommendations can be progressed by the Commonwealth Government in the short-term. These include:

· development of a national communication strategy and charter;

potential use of the Access Card to increase registrations on the Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR);

development of clinical triggers for identifying potential donors; and

expansion of health professional training on donor/family consent processes.

Ministers agreed that the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council and its sub-committees will consider recommendations with cross-jurisdictional implications and will provide advice to Ministers before the next AHMC meeting. These recommendations relate to:

development and implementation of a national communications strategy and charter;

development and implementation of national clinical triggers for identifying potential organ donors; and

development and publication of an annual Organ and Tissue Donation Report.

The Taskforce will continue to engage with the organ and tissue donation sector on key recommendations to maximise input and acceptance of the reform agenda. This will involve undertaking further work on:

a proposed real time donor notification system;

a proposed tissue and eye banking network; and

National allocation protocols.

The Taskforce will provide further advice in its final report in December 2007.

The Mid-Term Report will be available on the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing website.

Media contacts: Kay McNiece, Department of Health and Ageing, 0412 132 585

You can access the report by clicking here.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/organ-donation-nctf-report.htm