Government to pay compensation to kidney donors

Jonah Lomu is New Zealand's highest-profile live donor recipient. Picture / Brett Phibbs

New Zealanders who donate a kidney or part of their liver will be paid compensation towards loss of income.

The Herald understands the payment will be about $165 a week - the equivalent of the sickness benefit for a single person over 25 - and will be paid for up to 12 weeks.

An announcement is expected in the next few days by the Minister for Social Development and Employment, Steve Maharey, and Health Minister Annette King.

New Zealand has one of the lowest organ donation rates in the developed world.

Ms King has confirmed a payment but would not release details.

"I can say there will be a payment, but not to give organs. It's compensation for loss of earnings."

Donors are not eligible for ACC or health insurance payments but must rely on their employer's goodwill for the time they take off work.

Ms King expected a mixed reaction to the payment, with some believing it was better than nothing and others that it was not enough.

"The way I would portray it is it's a real shift in thinking in terms of acknowledging live donors as making a contribution to the health of other people."

Auckland City Hospital transplant surgeon Professor Stephen Munn said the amount was "not exactly generous but it's a start".

Most people on the sickness benefit did not make a contribution to the health care budget but live organ donors did.

"[They] are putting in a resource you couldn't otherwise get, which reduces cost. It's not just what they are contributing in humanitarian terms. They are giving a resource the Government couldn't otherwise buy."

Guy Johnson, director of the New Zealand Kidney Foundation, said the organisation had been pushing for years for compensation for live donors.

He did not expect a rush of new donors but said it would mean people who had already made the decision to donate but could not afford to might now be able to.

"It's not an incentive to entice more people ... It's still a special person who wants to donate. The payment is not going to make more people come out of the woodwork."

About 350 New Zealanders are on waiting lists for organs. Most need a kidney but others need a liver, lungs or heart.

A growing number of kidney transplants come from live donors.

Former All Black Jonah Lomu had a transplant last year after his friend Grant Kereama, a Wellington radio host, gave him a kidney.

Each year about 40 dead New Zealanders donate organs - about 9.9 per one million people, one of the lowest rates in the developed world.

And although about 28,000 New Zealanders die every year only about 100 are potential donors.

As part of moves to increase donor rates, the parliamentary health committee recommended the Government set up a national organ donor register, independent of the Human Tissue Review.

But two weeks before Christmas Ms King rejected that and said a register would be considered as part of the review, which would look at consent issues related to the collection, retention, management, storage and use of human tissue.

The decision has angered Opposition parties and campaigner Andy Tookey. He believes a register is a crucial part of the overall package for improving organ donation rates.

Health select committee chairwoman Steve Chadwick said the present system was a farce and there was still room for a register linking the driver licence system, primary health organisations and intensive care units.

But medical experts such as Professor Munn do not support a register and believe it could even be counter-productive.

He said doctors asked a family if their relative wanted to be a donor and would continue to do so. They were unlikely to use a register.

Live donors

* Two to six weeks: Time a kidney donor would need to be off work.

* Four to six weeks: Recovery period for someone donating part of a liver.

* 51 live donors gave kidneys for transplanting last year.

* Two live donors have given parts of their liver since 1998.