Trends in donor registration, 2016

27/07/2017 15:00

The number of people explicitly denying permission for organ donation stood at 1.71 million on 1 March 2017, 152 thousand more than at the beginning of 2016. In September and October 2016, a much higher number recorded or amended their wishes in the Dutch organ donor register (Donorregister) than in previous months, according to new figures released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

As of 1 March 2017, more than 6 million people (aged 12 years and over) were registered, i.e. 41 percent of this population cohort. This included 28 percent or 1.71 million people who opted out of consent, as against 1.56 million one year previously.

Donor registrations
	Designated person decides	Relatives decide	Specific consent	General consent	No consent
2014	0.1	0.6	0.69	2.8	1.58
2015	0.1	0.6	0.71	2.83	1.57
2016	0.1	0.6	0.73	2.87	1.56
2017	0.1	0.61	0.75	2.89	1.71

Also more people giving consent

Not only did more people explicitly deny permission for organ donation, at the same time there were also more people who did give their consent (with or without specific wishes regarding their donation). On 1 March 2017, this number had risen by 36 thousand to over 3.6 million, relative to 1 January 2016. Slightly more than 700 thousand people leave the decision whether or not to donate their organs to their relatives or to a designated person.

Most recent amendments in donor registrations, monthly
	2014	2015	2016
Jan	14358	8369	17405
Feb	8124	9988	18233
Mar	8190	12137	16432
Apr	23345	25844	33043
May	17047	17611	21166
Jun	12440	13572	14871
Jul	7962	7035	9838
Aug	7592	5654	14438
Sep	6830	4927	117108
Oct	37868	33269	89501
Nov	15647	22279	33899
Dec	14178	15842	20686

Many changes in Donorregister after legal amendment was adopted

Between 14 September and 31 December 2016, over 240 thousand persons made their most recent amendment to the Donorregister; these were either new registrations or changes to an existing registration. The number is fairly high in comparison with previous years. In September 2016, the Dutch House of Representatives adopted a proposal to amend the Organ Donation Act (WOD). That month, the number of (most recent) amendments to the register exceeded 117 thousand. By contrast, there were fewer than 5 thousand amendments in the same month in 2015.
Apart from the total number of people registered as donors or non-donors, CBS has data on the most recent changes made to the Donorregister. This includes new registrations as well as amendments to earlier registrations. CBS only has data on the last amendments made within a particular year; no information is available (yet) on the details of such changes.