The list of people waiting for an organ donation in Quebec has decreased. New data from Transplant Québec revealed Wednesday indicates an increase of 17% in the number of people who have benefited from a transplant and a record number of donations for the year 2023.
Last year as of December 31, 853 people were registered on the unique waiting list managed by Transplant Québec, the organization that coordinates organ donations across the province. At the same date in 2022, 913 people were waiting for an organ transplant.
The number of referrals increased by nearly 35% to reach 1,156 referrals for organ donations in 2023. Of this number, 270 referrals were eligible, including 21 donors from medical assistance in dying (MAID). Note that 151 AMM references were unable to qualify.
According to the general director of Transplant Québec, Martine Bouchard, although the indicators for the 2023 results are encouraging, the number of potential donors still remains below what Quebec can achieve.
“Concretely, this means that people in need of an organ and on our waiting list are currently dying even though we know we can do better,” she said in a statement.
Among the other highlights of the 2023 report, the waiting time has never been lower for people receiving lung transplants, with an average of 57 days of waiting, and the number of people waiting for a heart is at its lowest level in 10 years, with 32 people on the waiting list.
The number of organs transplanted also increased by 20%, notably thanks to the 206 deceased donors who made it possible to transplant 696 organs.
The metropolitan region remains the best performing in proportion to the population with a rate of 26.3 potential donors per 100,000 inhabitants. Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec comes in second place with a rate of 19.3, followed by Capitale-Nationale with a rate of 16.8.
The Bas-Saint-Laurent region, which had one of the lowest rates in Quebec in recent years, made a spectacular comeback by increasing its number of referrals by 230%, reaching a rate of 11.5 per 100 000 inhabitants.
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