Blueprint provides national strategy for boosting organ donations, transplants

TORONTO – Canadian Blood Services has released a blueprint aimed at increasing organ donation and transplantation rates across the country.

The goal of the national strategy is to boost organ donation by 50 per cent within five years and to double the number of donated tissues like corneas and bone within a decade.

The blueprint includes 25 recommendations on how provinces and territories can work together to create a national program to improve Canada’s transplantation rate.

Canadian Blood Services CEO Dr. Graham Sher says patient demand for life-saving or life-enhancing transplants far outstrips the supply of donor organs and tissues.

Sher says one Canadian dies every day and a half waiting for a new heart, liver, kidney or other organ.

Canada’s donation rate has been stagnant for the last 10 years and is about half that of top-performing countries like Spain and the United States.