Both the number of organ donations and transplants in Canada rebounded in 2021 after the number in plunged in 2020 in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The report, published Thursday, looked at the latest statistics from the Canadian Organ Replacement Register to provide a snapshot of the statistics in organ donation, transplantations and end-stage kidney disease since the first year of the pandemic.
In 2021, there were a total of 1,328 organ donors across Canada, a nine per cent increase compared to 2020.
“Canada’s organ donation and transplantation programs have been additionally challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed an unprecedented burden on health care systems in Canada and around the world,” the CIHI report stated. “While the first year of the pandemic saw a shifting of priorities and resources to address the surge of critically ill COVID-19 patients, Canada is beginning to show signs of recovery.”
The 2021 data also reveals that over the past decade there has been a 23 per cent increase in both organ donations and transplants performed. There were 2,235 solid organ transplants performed across Canada in 2012, compared to 2,750 in 2021.
This number also represents a six per cent increase in transplants in 2021 compared to 2020. The number of transplants performed in 2020—2,594—was the lowest number of yearly transplants since 2015.
It’s a good sign that we’re approaching pre-pandemic rates again, experts say.
“We’ve learned a lot over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: how we can safely transplant patients despite the threat of a potentially deadly respiratory virus, how to use organs effectively under these circumstances (including from donors who may be infected) and how the system must be adapted to address the challenges created by a global public health crisis,” Dr. Joseph Kim, Director, Kidney Transplant Program, University Health Network, said in the report. “More recently, we’ve seen signs of recovery in organ donation and transplantation activity almost comparable to pre-pandemic levels.”
We still haven’t rebounded completely, according to the data—there were 3,016 transplants performed in 2019, nine per cent more than in 2021.
And long-term gaps in the system that predate the pandemic are still affecting patients.
“While Canada has made improvements in the donation and transplantation of life-saving organs over the past decade, there remains a large gap between the need for organs and the number of donors and transplants,” the report stated. “As a result, organ failure patients often experience lengthy wait times, with some patients dying before a suitable organ becomes available.”
In 2021, a total of 105 people died while waiting for a kidney transplant. The second most deadly wait time was in liver transplants, where 95 patients died while waiting for a liver.
As of December 31, 2021, there were 4,043 Canadians on wait lists to receive an organ transplant, according to an earlier report from CIHI in June.
Wait times for those with end-stage kidney disease to receive a kidney transplant have gotten both better and worse. Over the last decade, the wait time for a kidney from a deceased donor has improved by 10 per cent, but the wait time for a kidney from a living donor increased by 30 per cent. However, it’s still much faster to receive a kidney from a living donor, with patients waiting around 1.1 years as of 2021 compared to 3.3 years from a deceased donor.
MORE LIVING DONORS PROVIDED ORGANS IN 2021
Organ donation statistics are split into donors who are deceased, meaning those who agreed ahead of time to donate viable organs after they died, and donors who are living, such as those who donate one of their kidneys to a loved one.
The number of deceased donors dropped in 2020 and didn’t budge in 2021, with the rate in both years remaining around 12 per cent below pre-pandemic donation rates.
But while the deceased donor rate stayed down, more living donors chose to donate an organ in 2021 compared to 2020, according to the data.
The living donor rate in 2021 was around 15.5 donors per million people, which is similar to the pre-pandemic rate and also a 20 per cent increase on the 2020 rate.
There were more than 100 extra transplants from living donors in 2021 compared to 2020.
MORE CANADIANS BEING TREATED FOR END-STAGE KIDNEY DISEASE
The number of Canadians dealing with end-stage kidney disease has been steadily rising over the past decade, according to the CIHI report.
Since 2012, there was a 24 per cent increase in patients receiving either kidney dialysis or pre-emptive kidney transplants. The data spans all of Canada except for Quebec, for which long-term data wasn’t available.
The steady growth of Canadians receiving these treatments plateaued in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a combination of patients being wary of going to the doctor during the pandemic and the pandemic halting or delaying numerous medical procedures and treatments.
More and more patients are opting for at-home dialysis, with this treatment increasing as a first choice by 22 per cent over the last decade. A patient with end-stage kidney disease who hasn’t had a transplant has to receive dialysis around three times a week in sessions that last four hours, making an at-home option more accessible for many patients.
Kidney transplants in adults are associated with some of the highest survival rates for solid organ transplants, but those survival rates have not improved over the last 10 years. Survival rates are higher among those who receive a kidney from a living donor, with an 88 per cent survival rate at five years post-transplant, compared to those who receive a kidney from a deceased donor for a 77 per cent survival rate after five years.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
