More than 100,000 potential donors have registered with Qatar’s pioneering Organ Donor Registry marking a major milestone for the project.

The number of registered donors in Qatar has more than doubled over the past few months from 43,000 in March to 100,000 on the counting day. This growth has been attributed to an education and outreach campaign by the Qatar Organ Donation Centre (Hiba) at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) during Ramadan and throughout the year.

This year the Qatar Organ Donation Centre continued its successful campaign to enrol new donors, taking its message to shopping malls across the country as well to as to other major events and schools.

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Managing Director Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, herself a registered organ donor said: “Reaching 100,000 registered donors was achieved through the great efforts of the Qatar Organ Donation Center (Hiba) and its supporters in the community.”

“We especially owe a great deal of gratitude to H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for her unwavering support for our programme. Through her generous act of registering as an organ donor,

H H made a clear and unequivocal pledge to support organ donation and her demonstration of leadership by example helped tremendously in encouraging more people in Qatar to register as organ donors.”

“Central to HMC’s efforts to expand the programme and encourage registrations is our commitment to education — about the benefits of organ donation and the process. This means people in the community can make an informed decision to give the gift of life,” she added.

An organ transplant can be life-saving. It can also significantly improve quality of life for someone with chronic organ failure. The life-saving organs come from deceased donors, who pledged during their lives to give their organs. A deceased organ donor can save up to eight lives. It is also possible to donate a kidney or part of the liver while one is alive, to a relative. Continued from page 1

Dr Al Kuwari said Qatar’s organ donation and transplant programme’s success was built on strict implementation of Doha Donation Accord which ensures ethical standards and equitable treatment for donors and recipients.

“There has been a significant drop in the number of patients going abroad for transplant procedures, which is a great encouragement for us to further enhance our services to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency in terms of organ donation and transplants.

“The growth of the registry is unprecedented in the region. Qatar is one of the few countries in the region offering integrated organ transplant services, on the basis of a single, unified national waiting list.

“We are proud of the programme and the strides made by its team in a relatively short time and we will continue to build on this success,” she added.

Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/359837/100-000-register-for-organ-donation

Follow us on our social media channels: @ILQlive @ILQlive @ILoveQtr ILoveQatar

QNE

Start a discussion