Australians Donate closed on April 1st 2008

This website is being maintained as a resource and reference hosted by the Australian government Department of Health and Ageing. All media enquiries should be directed to the Department of Health and Ageing on the mobile no. 0412 132 585. Enquiries from individuals and organizations concerning local donation and/or transplantation practices, including legislation, please contact the State Based Agency.If you wish to register as an organ donor please follow the link http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au or call 1800 777 203

NSW:   Australian Red Cross Blood Service – LifeGift NSW/ACT
PH: (02) 9229 4003
ACT:     ACT Organ and Tissue Donation Service
PH: (02) 6244 3071
VIC&TAS: Australian Red Cross Blood Service – LifeGift VIC
PH: 1300 133 050
QLD:     Queenslanders Donate
PH: (07) 3240 2350
SA:       South Australian Organ Donation Agency
PH: (08) 8207 7117
NT:       LifeNet NT
PH: (08) 8922 8786
WA:      Donate West
PH: (08) 9222 0222

At the 3rd of January 2008, 1 875 people were waiting for organ transplants:

Kidney 1388 Heart 100, Liver 198, Lung 141, Pancreas 48.

In 2007, 198 people had donated organs, allowing 626 transplants to be performed.

In 2007, a total of 1108 people in Australia and New Zealand had donated eyes, allowing corneal transplants.

By the end of May 2007, 1706 people donated other tissue while 1260 people had received donated tissue implants.

Report card

To download a report card on organ and tissue donation, please click here (44KB).

Collaborative Learning Session 6 and National Forum held in Sydney, 29th February 2008

The 6th Australians Donate Collaborative Learning Session was held in Sydney on Friday 29 February 2008 following the AD National Forum. Sydney put on some wild weather with many flights and taxis in chaos as the city was also getting ready to celebrate Mardi Gras. Amongst this excitement, the Learning Session and National Forum once more provided the attendees with a variety of speakers and topics which ignited debate and comment.

We again celebrated a high degree of hospital participation. Delegates from 25 of 26 of the collaborative hospitals attended the Learning Session with an average of 4-5 delegates per hospital. 124 delegates registered for the Learning Session and 144 delegates registered for the Forum.

The Forum invited overseas speakers to provide the opportunity for the sector to continue to grow an understanding of the principal issues and barriers around organ and tissue donation from this important international perspective.

These speakers also presented at the Learning Session providing delegates with the opportunity to hear current international perspectives.

The speakers
The key speakers included:
Mr Leo Roels who is the Managing Director for the International Donor Action Foundation in Belgium and is also on the Board of Directors of ITCS and Scientific Program Director ITCS. Mr Roels spoke on the international results of the Donor Action Survey and was able to comment on the Australian results of this survey.
Dr Julia Wendon who is a Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Hepatology at King’s College London presented on critical care and liver transplantation.
A/Professor Michael G Ison of Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA, spoke on donor derived infections: current issues and future directions. A/Professor Ison is also the Chair of the Disease Transmission Advisory Group, United Network for Organ Sharing.
Professor John McNeil who is the Head of Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine at Monash University spoke on ethical issues in organ donation and transplantation.