FOCUS

1. Organ procurement skills training programme

The organ procurement skills training programme was set up to train health care professionals in organ procurement and to establish a professional organ procurement system. In addition, we have been able to set up a solid collaborative network to raise awareness of organ donation within the medical community.

Under the organ procurement skills training programme, we train and advise health care professionals, administrators and managers on how to detect, identify, evaluate and manage possible organs and tissue donors. The fundamental goal is to improve the knowledge of organ donation, which in turn increases the number and quality of organs available for transplantation.

The course aims to empower health care professionals with up-to-date clinical and communication skills and gives them the knowledge they need to transform potential donors into actual donors. They can also use the established sharing system to refer and distribute organs to the most suitable recipients. .

Transplantation only forms part of a medical or nursing education when the individual specialises in the field. When health care professionals are not trained to identify potential donors, their lack of knowledge or motivation means that we lose many potential donors whose organs could be used to help critically ill patients. 

The programmes are jointly funded by the Organ Donor Foundation and the South African Transplant Society. All ICU and trauma unit staff from around the country are invited to attend workshops in Gauteng, Cape Town or Durban.

2. Doctors’ educational field trips
A major issue in the success of our transplantation programmes is that many members of the medical community do not understand how to identify donors, procure the organs and transport them. Many hospitals in outlying areas are not affiliated to a transplant centre. As a result, their staff seldom have the skills to identify, manage and refer potential donors. Our doctors’ educational field trips are designed to address this issue, by reaching out to rural hospitals and informing them about organ donation. 

The training programmes are aimed at both private and state hospitals. The first trip took place in September 2006. The surgeon in charge of transplants at the Red Cross Children's Hospital and a transplant and vascular access surgeon from Groote Schuur visited state and private hospitals in George. The aim was to address the issues outlined above. The response from the institutions was overwhelming. The resulting referrals from those hospitals have helped to save lives that would otherwise have been lost.

This education is imperative and is an important part of our strategy to reduce the organ donor shortage in South Africa.