Organ transplants: what does the new ministerial plan change for patients?

This is part of the damage of the pandemic. Due to the health crisis, the activity of removals and transplants has been greatly weakened. Result: many patients have been waiting to receive a transplant since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic. To remedy this lack of organ and tissue donations, the government has decided to finance, for the first time, new measures for the removal and transplantation of organs and tissues for the period 2022 – 2026. The new action plan was published by the Ministry of Health and the Biomedicine Agency on March 14.

The development of multi-source sampling at the heart of the fourth transplant plan

The main objective of the executive is to develop multi-source donation in an assumed way in order to counterbalance the reduction of potential donors in a state of brain death. “This effort will involve in particular the continued deployment of the Maastricht III protocol, the intensification of the practice of living donor samples (it would be particularly effective in kidney transplantation where the proportion of living donors is much lower than in other European countries, editor’s note) and the development of pediatric sampling”, can we read in the press release.

The government also plans to increase the census and the removal of organs from deceased donors (more specifically to guarantee priority access to the operating room), to improve access to the national waiting list and to develop the transplantation of organs. It also plans to improve the quality of practices and the safety of care. To do this, the Ministry of Health intends to increase the number of health professionals and strengthen audits and training. Another change: to optimize the funding of inventory, removal and transplantation of organs and tissues to make them more attractive to healthcare establishments.