Health committee  We have many of the elements there. The Canadian Transplant Registry is actually in place, and it is a system to bring this information together. All of the different organ organizations—the kidney specialists, liver specialists, etc.—have already come together and decided which

Health committee  I did show slides that illustrate the fact that, over the last decade, we have gone from that very discouraging flat line stuck at 15 donors per million to an increase in Canada by 50% over the last 10 years. I think we also recognize that although that's a very important accompl

Health committee  It would be a huge help. As I mentioned, and as Dr. West mentioned as well, we have many of the pieces in place to do these jobs well, but at the present time, for example, in Canadian Blood Services, the section charged with this goes back every three years to write another requ

Health committee  I'm sure Dr. West feels that it's exactly the same situation as well.

Health committee  I'd first like to apologize. It took me a few minutes to get to the English translation, so, unfortunately, I missed the question.

Health committee  A blatant payment to someone to come and donate a kidney is, to me, in our system, unethical and is not supported, and I don't think any transplant program in Canada would be onside with doing that. However, as Dr. West has pointed out, there are a bunch of other situations that

Health committee  There are certain jurisdictions, certainly in the U.S., in which that sort of payment is made to cover funeral costs and such, but again, it's a question of how far you stretch it. At the base, there is an ethical contraindication to straight payment of cash for an organ.

Health committee  A donation specialist can be a nurse or a doctor. In this situation we're speaking specifically about donation physicians and so, as Dr. West has mentioned, that individual will have part of their salary, basically part of their funding, for this separate responsibility. The majo

Health committee  I think every hospital in the country would have someone who could do this. It's a question of whether they have someone who's funded to do this. The recommendation is that every hospital that has an active critical care unit should have someone. In fact, in jurisdictions like

Health committee  It is a complex process, with many simultaneously moving parts. That's one of the reasons we need specialists in the area, and we have the support of donation coordinators, who help with much of this. In fact, the notification to the organ procurement organization would usually

Health committee  The situation, I would say, is that when the family consents to donation, the donation and the transplant system will make every effort to utilize every organ that can possibly be used. There are many situations in which the organ in question may be damaged, either by disease in

Health committee  Basically, there are a lot of skills that are important, and I think systems to develop that sort of training are in the process of being developed in the country. They are a long way from perfect, but we do have work going in that direction. Some of the physicians who are invo

Health committee  In some Canadian provinces, we have moved to this system of mandatory referrals for potential donors. Whenever someone suffers from either a severe injury to the brain or a stroke or participates in some activity that basically results in the fact that they will almost certainly

Health committee  Sorry, can you clarify that question?

Health committee  I didn't want to make the case by pointing fingers at individual provinces, but in reality, we have to recognize that among different provinces across the country, we have very different levels of commitment, funding, and development of the various aspects that we know are effect