Doctors' group asks DOH to reassess organ transplant policy

The country's biggest group of doctors, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), has asked the Department of Health to reassess its ban on "non-directed" organ donors to help save more ailing patients. "We send to you this letter with regards to what we perceive as an urgent need to reassess the ban on non-directed organ donors which the health department imposed in compliance with various administrative orders issued by our predecessors, Drs. Francisco Duque and Esperanza Cabral," PMA president Oscar Tinio told Health Secretary Enrique Ona in a November 22 letter obtained by GMANews.TV. Under the current policy of the Department of Health (DOH), patients are not allowed to receive a kidney from another person unless they are related, close acquaintances, or dead. "Due to the current policy of the DOH, these patients will die without the needed organs to save them," said Tinio. 1 out of 18 local prospects died According to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), around 570 local patients are waiting for kidneys to be made available for their transplants. About 32 of these patients, however, have died waiting for the needed organs. Ona, who happens to be one of the country’s pioneering kidney transplant surgeons, had earlier said that he was considering a review of the policy imposed by Duque. Ona was also director of the NKTI from 1998 to 2010. Competition from foreign patients Before the 2008 ban, there had been a 10-percent limit on foreigners receiving Filipino kidneys. But many in the medical community, including Ona, admitted that the limit was grossly violated and local patients were left with no way to compete with foreign patients also in need of kidney transplants. Tinio, however, said that although they "acknowledge" that abuses were committed in the past, the fact remains that there is not enough supply of donor organs that can save the lives of patients. Safety nets needed "If there is a defect in the nation's human organ donation system it should be fixed by putting the needed safety nets. Choking the already limited supply of life-saving human organs in the country will surely kill the system and the lives of our patients with it," he said. He added that policies should not only favor no one but should also not be a disadvantage to anyone. "We can not save the lives of our patients not because we do not have the capability or the technology to do so but because of a policy that our government chose to impose," he said. - TJD, GMANews.TV