Organ donor rates plummet

Organ donor rates plummet
Friday, 5 September 2008, 10:00 am
Press Release: GiveLife

***Media Release***
GiveLife NZ
4 September 2008

Organ donor rates plummet

Figures released today show New Zealand's organ donor rates are plummeting whilst other countries are reporting a rise in donors.

The number of donors to the end of August was just seventeen, one of the lowest figures this century.

"If this trend continues until the end of the year then we will have around 6 donors per million of population. In comparison Spain has 36 donors per million of population." Said GiveLife Spokesman Andy Tookey.

"I have asked the Minister of Health what happened to the half a million dollars, triple the amount of annual funding and the doubling of staff at the organ donor service if this is the end result of that expenditure?"

"This is a serious situation. Many people are dying or suffering unnecessarily due to government inaction."

Recently Australia announced a $130 Million campaign on organ donation and last week Canada announced a $35 million campaign to boost organ donor rates.

Last month New Zealand's Associate Minister of Health, Mita Ririnui announced that no money had been spent in the past ten years on organ donation awareness and they had no plans to do so in the futrure.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0809/S00034.htm