Never before so many organ donors in the Netherlands as in 2022 | inland
285 people disposed of their organs when they died last year. According to the Dutch Transplantation Foundation (NTS), this is the largest number ever.
Due to the deceased, more organ transplants could be performed last year. In 2020, 251 people donated their organs, compared to 271 in 2021. Last year the number rose to 285.
In these cases, an art had to first determine that someone was brain dead or that the blood circulation had stopped.
Since the autumn of 2021, every adult Dutch person has been registered in the Donor Register. The number of people registered with ‘yes’ or ‘no objection’ is a major objection. “As many as 8.1 million people have given permission for organ donation,” the Kidney Foundation writes in a press release.
The new donor law has been in force since 1 July 2020. As a result, you automatically become an organ donor from the age of eighteen. If you do not want this, you can explicitly indicate this in the Donor Register.
It is not yet clear whether the increase in the number of donors is the result of this new donor law. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is going to depress the law at the end of this year.
Number of transplants back to pre-coronavirus levels
In 2020 there was another drop in the number of organ donors and transplants. Due to the increase, a total of 860 organ transplants were performed last year. The incidence has returned to pre-coronavirus levels.
NTS director Bernadette Haase is pleased with the increase. “We greatly appreciate the choice of donors and next of kin to donate. As a result, as many life-saving transplants as possible can be done.”
Haase also notes that the quality of organs removed is improved thanks to innovations. According to her, this meant that even more patients could be helped.
Waiting list for kidney transplants is growing due to large influx of patients
Despite the high transplant numbers, the waiting list for a kidney transplant has become somewhat longer. According to NTS, this is due to the large influx of new donor patients. According to the Kidney Foundation, the waiting list for a donor kidney has increased by 5 percent: from 877 to 923.
However, more kidney transplants were performed last year. The number of living donor kidney transplants has reached its highest level in recent years.
In recent corona years, that number was precisely before deceased, underlying living donation could not continue in many cases due to the limited ICU capacity.
People who need a new kidney form the largest group of people waiting. In total, more than twelve hundred people are waiting for a new organ.