Regional donor bank coming as organ bill debated

Barbados is set to spearhead a major regional health initiative by proposing the creation of a CARICOM organ donor bank, ​Minister of Health Senator Lisa Cummins has told the Senate as she introduced the first-ever draft law on organ donations. 

The proposal is to be made at the September meeting of the CARICOM Council on Health and Social Development meeting in Guyana. 

The organ donor bank would expand the pool of available organs across millions of people intraregionally, moving beyond the limitations of individual island populations to save more lives, she said.

​The regional initiative emerged as a central pillar of the Human Tissue Transplant Bill, which would establish a national donor and transplantation registry, a regulatory council, and clear protocols for legal consent.

Senator Cummins emphasised that while national legislation creates the foundation, true success relies on regional collaboration and systemic scaling.

She said: ​”It is my intention in September to place on the agenda collaboration for a regional donor bank for organs, so that we have access to not just a small pool that is Barbados. 

“Whether that organ is coming from Trinidad or from St. Kitts, or from Guyana, we need a framework that allows us to collaborate intraregionally across the millions of people across the region so that we are able to help more people.”

Senator ​Cummins noted several domestic challenges to transplantation, notably the high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Barbados. Though the island is frequently noted for its longevity and high concentration of centenarians, a high prevalence of poorly managed hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease severely restricts the pool of healthy living donors, she warned.

Lifestyle habits established in a person’s twenties, she argued, directly dictate whether they or their relatives can participate in a donor programme decades later.

Senator Cummins explicitly countered claims that the legislation would mirror automatic donation policies seen in some European nations.

​”In some countries, automatically when you pass, your organs are donated. Countries like Switzerland, automatically, bodies will go and the organs are taken and they’re donated to whoever is there. That is not what this legislation does,” the Minister clarified. “People have the right in this legislation to choose if they want to donate their tissue after death.”

​Expressing a personal desire to opt in to a donor programme, Senator Cummins shared an intention to wear a donor bracelet and encourage family discussions around giving “the gift of life” to counter fear and misinformation through a planned robust public education campaign.

​The legislation formally outlines the parameters for consensual adult tissue donation and introduces a strict framework for minors, alongside a blanket prohibition on the commercial trading of human tissue. The drafting process involved extensive consultation with the Law Reform Commission, led by former chief justice and attorney general Sir David Simmons, incorporating World Health Organisation regulations and international best practices.

But the health minister cautioned that the enactment of the law is merely the beginning of a larger structural overhaul. Putting the bill into effect requires addressing critical shortages within the medical pipeline, starting with specialised nursing care, she said. 

Pointing to current capacity issues, she noted that the Barbados Community College School of Nursing produces only 24 to 25 nurses annually, despite a total capacity of 70.

​”For every specialist doctor, we need four trained nurses,” Senator Cummins explained, noting that the real work begins after the bill becomes law. 

“Legislation alone is not going to perform the transplants. Legislation alone is not going to train our surgeons. Legislation alone is not going to educate the public, neither is it going to strengthen our laboratories. Legislation simply creates the framework.”

​To support the clinical side, the Ministry of Health is mobilising a multidisciplinary ecosystem that includes scientists at the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory, who are currently developing real-time tissue matching capabilities. Pharmacists, social workers, and transplant coordinators will also form part of the team.

The ministry has also pledged to creating  a comprehensive National Organ Donation and Transplantation Strategy to tie these moving parts together.

Senator Cummins framed the initiative as a long-term project to modernise regional healthcare infrastructure.

​”This debate ultimately comes down to a single question: what kind of overall health system are we trying to build for Barbadians?

”Piece by piece, bit by bit, incrementally, we are building a healthcare system that by magic isn’t going to appear overnight, but we are building a healthcare sector that benefits our current generations and is being built for future generations.”

(RR)