P.E.I. watching 'very closely' as Nova Scotia enacts new organ donation system

People who work in organ and tissue donation in P.E.I. are watching the province next door closely now that Nova Scotia's new presumed consent organ donation system is in effect.

On Jan. 18, 2021, Nova Scotia became the first jurisdiction in North America to bring in an opt-out donation system, rather than an opt-in system.

It means that instead of indicating on a health card or a driver's licence that you would like to donate your organs or tissue, every adult is presumed to be open to the idea.

"Like the rest of the country, we are watching Nova Scotia very closely," Angela Carpenter told Mitch Cormier on Island Morning.

Carpenter is the program manager for organ and tissue donation at Health PEI.

She said P.E.I. has not made any decisions about whether to switch to a presumed consent system here.

"It's something that has been on the radar for a while nationally as well as provincially. So we have had discussions about it, but no decisions have been made yet."

We're trying to help people make a really difficult decision at what is probably the worst time of their life. Angela Carpenter,Health PEI

In 2020, 34 people donated organs in Nova Scotia, a record number.

And at the end of January, preliminary numbers showed that just one per cent of Nova Scotia's population had signed up online to opt out of organ donation. Officials were expecting to see a higher number.

Here on P.E.I., the province has an intent-to-donate registry, where you can either opt in or out of organ and tissue donation.

"We're asking P.E.I. residents to let us know what they want if the opportunity to donate arises," said Carpenter.

There are 55,000 people on the registry. Of those, 14,640 have said they don't want their organs donated, and 16,603 have said no to tissue donation.

The information used to be indicated on P.E.I. drivers' licences, but it's now on the back of your health card.

"You register when you renew your health card and when your new card comes, it should have a red heart on the back of it if you have said yes," said Carpenter.

In 2018, P.E.I. launched an organ donation campaign called Make It Zero, with the goal of having zero patients on the organ transplantlist.At the time, there were 18 people on the list.

That list now sits at 11, and organ donation statistics have stayed the same over the past four years, with about 10 donations per year.

'It's just gotten people talking'

Carpenter said the success that Nova Scotia is seeing can be attributed to a number of factors.

"I think it is because of all of the media attention and the public education that they're doing. So people are more aware of organ donation and what it means to say yes or no, like what the ramifications of that are," she said.

Carpenter pointed out that Nova Scotia didn't simply change the legislation and leave it at that. They also hired more staff and invested in training them about the proper way to talk about organ donation.

"We're trying to help people make a really difficult decision at what is probably the worst time of their life. You know, they've just been told that their loved one is dying and then we're coming to them with this big, important decision," said Carpenter.

"There's been a lot of work put into this. It's not just opt-in or opt-out."

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