Organ donations and wait list increasing in Ontario

The Trillium Gift of Life Network says the number of organ and tissue donations in Ontario are increasing, though the transplant waiting list also grew last year.

The province's organ and tissue donation and transplant agency says there were 2,413 tissue donors in 2018, an increase of 85 per cent over the last decade.

Trillium says requiring hospitals to notify them when a patient has died has helped.

There are currently about 1,630 people on the transplant waiting list, up from about 1,527 at the end of 2017.

Trillium says heart transplant patients waited fewer average days than ever before last year -- at 120 days -- and there were an "unprecedented" 195 lung transplants, a figure up 75 per cent in the last five years.

More than four million Ontarians have now registered their consent to organ and tissue donation, including a quarter of a million who signed up last year, but Trillium's president and CEO says more still needs to be done.

"Despite all the progress, it is not enough," Ronnie Gavsie said in a statement. "Every three days someone dies waiting for an organ transplant."