“Before the Covid crisis, the trajectory was already a little downward and quite far from the objectives. The Covid crisis had a rather painful impact”, even though “the demand from civil society is very strong”, underlined the office of the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
In 2021, 5,273 transplants took place, mostly kidney transplants qui represent two-thirds of operations, according to data from the Biomedicine Agency. A jump of 20% compared to 2020, but a comparison distorted by the Covid crisis.
Compared to 2019, the last year before the crisis, decline in grafts was around 10% last year. However, the number of applicants has continued to increase with more than 20,000 people waiting.
To relaunch organ and tissue donations, a ministerial action plan was presented on Monday by the ministry and the Biomedicine Agency.
The fourth in date, this plan will be “ambitious and innovative”, they insisted. The hope is to reach between 6,700 and 8,300 transplants in 2026, according to the Agency.
Financially, two billion euros are announced over five years. Of this total, “for the first time”, the new measures will have additional funding of 210 million, notes the press release.
Five measures “innovative” are advanced.
By 2026, 150 experienced nurses will be mobilized to better coordinate hospital samples.
In the other novelties: the “assumed development” samples “multi-sources” from deceased, living and pediatric donors, for “offset the downward trend in the number of subjects in a state of brain death”.
For kidney transplants, France is counting on 20% of living donors in 2026, compared to 16% in 2021. In the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, 82% and 53% respectively of kidney transplants are linked to living donors.
For children requiring transplants, the wish is that they benefit from children’s organs, the samples currently coming mainly from young adults.
The plan also provides for more incentive financing for the removal and transplant activity, performance indicators to judge it, or even a referent “harvesting and grafting” in the regional health agencies (ARS).
With AFP
