Page 636 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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Kevin Rudd, who I think knew first hand the importance of raising awareness around organ and tissue donation. Not only did he talk the talk; he did walk the walk—by providing a new way of coordinating organ and tissue donation through his national reform package and by putting funds that had never been spent in this area into resourcing this sector more appropriately.
For the ACT that has meant some changes to the way we do things, but in a sense the reality has been that we have got additional resources created through the reform package to support those very difficult decisions when they are made with families at the hospital level.
We know that the ACT probably gets short-changed a little bit in terms of our donation rate. I think in the official data the ACT was second to South Australia for organ donation, with a donation rate of 14.1 per million of population. These are 2009 figures. However, I think that if you disaggregated some of the New South Wales data out of the ACT you would see a much better rate—in fact, you would have the ACT leading the country in terms of the donation rate.
I know there are some differences of opinion around that data, and smaller states always struggle with fluctuating numbers due to the size of our population. But last year we did have 10 donors, which was a rate of 17.3 per million population. That being said, we could still do better. But that increase in donors that we saw in the ACT was replicated across Australia. I think that shows that the money that has been invested in putting resources in at the coalface—supporting very difficult decisions, but dealing with that early decision making that needs to be made—has made a difference for a lot of people across Australia.
When we look around the world, we can see where there is more to be done, particularly in Europe, which leads the donation rates internationally. Spain was 34 per million, the US 24, Estonia 23, Italy 21 and the United Kingdom 15. With Australia at 12 donors per million, we can certainly improve on our rates there.
It is important to understand some of the findings from some work that is being done by the organ and tissue donation authority. It did a survey, I think last year, which provided some interesting data for those who are concerned around how we raise awareness around organ and tissue donation. It did include some ACT data and it showed that most people believe that ending a relationship, talking to an elderly family member about aged care, and explaining the birds and the bees to their children are harder conversations to have with their loved ones than those about organ and tissue donation.
Even with that being the case, only one in two Australians know if their next of kin actually wants to be a donor. It is not as though we are frightened of having the conversation, but that shows the importance of needing to have that conversation. Obviously it is something we find relatively easy to talk about, but we have not necessarily pursued all the opportunities to have that conversation.
We also know that the community are more likely to know about less important things—such as the favourite drink of their family members or loved ones, what
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