In 2022 transplants in Italy increased by 2% compared to the previous year. But compared to a total number of 3,887 patients who had their application acceptedlast year the waiting list was over 8,000 patients. Also in 2022, in hospitals in our country, there was an average rate of opposition to organ donation of 28%. These two figures confirm the much that remains to be done in Italy with regards to the donation and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells.
“It is essential that Parliament and the Government work in harmony and quickly to ensure Italy a more effective regulatory and management framework for this sensitive and important matter”, underlines the senator Elisa Pirro which is promoting the establishment ofParliamentary intergroup on organ, tissue and cell donation and transplantation. The initiative was presented today in the Nassirya hall of the Senate, with the involvement of representatives of the scientific community and the advocacy world.
«This country cannot afford to have such a large number of patients waiting for an organ transplant, nor that the orientation of the population towards organ donation is not the expression of a dominant culture, given that only 14.5 millions of people have filed their declaration of will», comments the parliamentarian. “In this health sector, it is essential for Italy to have a new and homogeneous management paradigm throughout the national territory, which allows for faster procedures, the adoption of innovative technological methodologies and solutions, as well as adequate professional and economic endowments ».
One of the first aspects to which the parliamentary Intergroup will have to devote attention will be that of updating, in some parts, the law n. 91/1999 which established the National Transplant Center, a body whose centrality is fundamental for regulating and above all strengthening the matter of organ, tissue and cell sampling, transport and transplants. Several parliamentarians from various political areas have already joined it, who will first of all try to connect with the various bodies (public and private institutions, scientific societies and expressions of the advocacy world) which, in various capacities and with various motivations, are committed to the donation and transplants. All this, with the aim of collecting information, data and suggestions useful for the shared elaboration of proposals that can be kept in the maximum evidence for legislative activity but also for government action.
During the press conference, the Social manifesto elaborated on the matter by Committee on Equitable Access to Organ, Tissue and Cell Donation and Transplantationpromoted by the health policy magazine Italian Health Policy Brief (Ihpb). The document, signed by 11 patient associations and civic organisations, highlights the varied typology of problems that characterize the sector and which are worthy of being held in the utmost consideration for many aspects: socio-cultural, systemic and economic-organisational.
“The whole path that has accompanied the commitment in the field of organ donation and transplants in recent years has seen the patient and citizen associations involved in this field as protagonists”, said the coordinator of the Committee, Teresa Petrangolini. “Today it is necessary to relaunch this commitment on various fronts concerning the improvement of the organization, equity of access, the simplification and modernization of the various steps, with particular attention to the delicate issue of donation. The Committee was born precisely for this: to build a common program with the world of associations to provide strong support to transplant policy, so that it increasingly responds to the health needs of Italian citizens”.
The areas of intervention to improve the health response on the subject are many: from the indispensable raising awareness of the population on the importance of donation orientationat the review of management responsibilities and tasks between the national and regional levels; from the enhancement oftechnological innovation in the management of organizational aspectsall’update of refund rates for the different services that characterize the different phases of the complex process of organ, tissue and cell donation and transplantation, just to name a few.
Lastly, particular attention must be paid to the the need to make the activities relating to donation and transplants uniform and homogeneous throughout the national territoryaffecting both the promotion of the culture of organ donation and the organizational aspects, thus overcoming the gap between the southern and northern regions.