More time, more money and support from mobile expert teams for small hospitals: The requirements for organ donation in German hospitals should improve. This is the aim of a law passed by the Bundestag on Thursday by a large majority.
The goal is to increase the number of donors in Germany. "This gives hope to the 10,000 patients who are waiting for a donor organ," said Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). The law is expected to come into force in early April. The central points:
MORE TIME: Since 2012, all clinics have had to designate transplant officers who will organize care for organ donation. This process involves identifying potential organ donors, reporting to accompany relatives, and keeping doctors and carers up to date on a regular basis.
In order to be able to fulfill this function, the commissioners should in future be freed from other tasks. The requirements for this are based on the number of beds in intensive care units. In addition, they should be given access rights to intensive care units and switched on if patients could be considered as organ donors.
MORE MONEY: Hospitals should be better remunerated for organ donation. Current packages are not cost-covering, said SPD parliamentary vice Karl Lauterbach. That should change, without clinics with organ donations made profits. According to the draft, statutory health insurance funds are expected to receive estimated expenditure of more than € 30 million per year.
For the health care system, the better compensation would mean additional costs at first sight, but also savings in the long term, says Lauterbach. Thus follow-up costs of missing transplantations are partly higher, for example with permanent blood purification because of severe kidney diseases.
MOBILE EXPERTENTEAMS: A new on- call service with mobile medical teams is planned. This is to ensure that all clinics can check the medical requirements for organ donation - ie the final, unrecoverable failure of the overall function of the cerebrum, the cerebellum and the brainstem. By the end of 2020, according to the law, "a suitable body" should be charged with organizing the team of experts.
FURTHER POINTS: It is also intended to facilitate an exchange between those affected - with rules for anonymised letters, with which organ recipients can thank the relatives of organ donors. In addition, a nationwide documentation system in the clinics should be used to record and evaluate, among other things, why a failure of brain functions was not detected.
Regardless of the law, the Bundestag is discussing new organ donation rules. So far, withdrawals are only allowed if the donor or relatives have expressly consented. Spahn instead promotes a so-called "double contradiction solution". Accordingly, everyone is automatically considered a donor who does not contradict. As a double barrier also relatives can still give this contradiction.
On the other hand, a group led by Greens' leader Annalena Baerbock and head of the Left, Katja Kipping, is constantly asking for readiness to donate organs - for example, when collecting new passports.
According to doctors and politicians, there is already a "glimmer of hope", although there is still further need for action: The number of donations has risen again after a long downward trend. Last year, 955 people left organs for other patients after their deaths, according to the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO). That was an increase of almost 20 percent compared to 2017 with 797 donors and the first major increase since 2010.