MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is looking at ways to expand organ donation in the country, including possible coverage for costs involved in retrieving organs from deceased donors.
DOH Essential Life-Saving Services Cluster Head Undersecretary Albert Domingo discussed the initiative in an interview on Friday, Oct. 2, as he outlined efforts to strengthen the Philippine Network for Organ Sharing (PhilNOS) and improve access to transplant services.
Domingo said the country's organ donor rate was currently less than one donor per million population, compared with 30 to 40 donors per million in countries such as Spain.
He said the DOH was working with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on expenses related to organ retrieval, including assessments to determine brain death and the ethical and dignified retrieval of organs from deceased donors.
PhilHealth has a kidney transplant package, while the DOH and PhilHealth are also looking at costs related to organ retrieval.
“That incurs costs, including the assessments conducted, as well as the ethical and dignified retrieval of our organs,” Domingo said in Filipino and English.
