New figures published: Swiss donate more organs than ever before

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Last year, 565 people in Switzerland benefited from organ donations – 111 more than the year before. The Swiss foundation for organ donation and transplantation, Swisstransplant, announced this on Tuesday.

At the end of the year, 1,391 people were still waiting to donate at least one organ. And last year, 92 people on the waiting list for organ donation died. That is also a record. Last year, 83 people died on the waiting list for an organ donor.

System change still has no effect

According to Swisstransplant, the increase in organ donations is not due to the system change, which voters approved at the ballot box in 2022. In the future, with the so-called comprehensive objection resolution, everyone will generally be considered a donor.

Anyone who does not want to donate organs will have to enter this in a central register in the future. This system change is not expected to take place until 2026.

Rather, the development goes back to newly introduced support for donor hospitals in identifying potential organ donors. This is done by the Swisstransplant medical service.

New technology

In addition, since the end of 2022, certain heart transplants have been performed in Switzerland after prior ex vivo cardiac perfusion. This complex technique makes it possible to maintain heart function outside the body and thus extend the time between organ removal and transplantation.

Since the beginning of the year, the new chairman of the board of directors of Swisstransplant is the Bernese SP State Councilor Flavia Wasserfallen. Previously, former Ticino SP state councilor Marina Carobbio Guscetti and vice-presidents Daniel Candinas and Markus Béchir headed the committee. (SDA)

Source:Blick