Action Plan on organ donation

In December 2008 the European Commission adopted the European "Action Plan on Organ Donation and Transplantation (2009-2015): Strengthened Cooperation between Member States". This is a non-binding instrument to help the Member States address the shortage of organs, enhance transplant systems and improve quality and safety of transplant procedures.

The Action Plan identifies 10 Priority Actions under 3 challenges: 

1. increasing organ availability;
2. enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of transplant systems;
3. improving quality and safety. 

The Netherlands institute for Health Services research (NIVEL) has now published an overview of the efforts during the first-half period of the Action Plan and the state of its implementation in 35 countries (the 27 EU Member States and 8 neighbouring countries).

The study, entitled ACTOR, concludes with recommendations at national and European levels. What becomes clear is the great diversity between countries, for instance regarding the number of transplantations from deceased donors or the importance of living donors. This diversity suggests that there is room for improvement and that there are many opportunities for countries to share their experiences and learn from each other.

The Priority Actions are as follows: 

1. Promote the role of transplant donor coordinators in every hospital where there is potential for organ donation.
2. Design indicators to monitor this action.
3. Promote Quality Improvement Programmes in every hospital where there is potential for organ donation
4. Exchange of best practices on living donation programmes among EU Member States: Support registers of living donors.
5. Improve the knowledge and communication skills of health professionals and patient support groups on organ transplantation.
6. Facilitate the identification of organ donors across Europe and cross-border donation in Europe.
7. Enhancing the organizational models of organ donation and transplantation in the EU Member States.
8. Promote EU-wide agreements on aspects of transplantation medicine.
9. Facilitate the interchange of organs between national authorities
10. Evaluation of post-transplant results.
11. Promote a common accreditation system for organ donation/procurement and transplantation programmes. 

In general, ACTOR concludes that: 

• Activities related to donor coordinators, living donation and interchange of organs (Priority Actions 1, 3 and 8) are increasingly being taken up by almost all countries. EU-funded projects reflect the state of these Actions: many countries are involved and efforts go further than providing insight and sharing knowledge, they aim at implementation. This means that these Priority Actions have a great potential for actual and EU-wide implementation.
• Priority Actions related to quality improvement programmes, organisational models and post-transplant follow-up (2, 6 and 9) have been taken up by most countries. For these Priority Actions there is a great potential for mutual learning through an exchange of experiences. The uptake of these Priority Actions seems to have increased as compared to 2009.
• Fewer countries have taken up activities in relation to communication skills, cross-border donation, EU-wide agreements and accreditation systems (4, 5, 7 and 10). One reason is that the meaning of these Priority Actions was not always clear to all CAs. It would therefore be beneficial to have further discussions on each of these Priority Actions in order to come to a shared, more precise and common understanding. 

For the report:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/blood_tissues_organs/docs/organs_actor_study_2013_en.pdf