Further manipulation of organ allocation revealed

After the discovery of several organ donation scandals, a commission carried out a large-scale inspection of all 46 transplant centers in Germany. The experts came across a variety of abnormalities, policy violations and manipulations, including in the University Hospital Jena and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich.
Göttingen organ donation scandal will be revealed in 2012
It was the largest organ donation scandal in the history of the Federal Republic: In 2012, it became known that a physician at Göttingen University Hospital had falsified medical records to allow selected patients a faster supply of donor organs. Gradually, further scandals were revealed, including in Munich, Regensburg and Leipzig.

Organ donation scandal is expanding. Image: Dan Race - fotolia

This was followed by a series of policy and self-government measures to ensure more control and transparency in transplantation medicine. These include e.g. tightened on-site testing of all heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas transplant programs, a multi-patient approach to enrolling waiting list patients, and setting up transplant conferences. In addition, citizens and health care workers have been able to contact an independent trust center since the end of 2012 to provide notices of abnormalities.

Commission reviews all 46 transplant centers
Now, as part of the investigation of the scandals, the Surveillance and Examination Board, which is based at the German Medical Association, has subjected all 46 transplant centers and 126 transplantation programs to a large-scale examination. The commission, which works in common sponsorship of the German Medical Association (BÄK), German Hospital Association and GKV-Spitzenverband, after the review of the years 2010 to 2012 overall "a positive conclusion drawn their work," according to a recent press release of the BÄK.

But the experts continued to discover irregularities at various clinics. Accordingly, in hospitals in Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg, Jena and Cologne in the field of heart transplants "systematic manipulations and abnormalities" have been found. In all cases, the patients were portrayed "sicker" than they were in reality, in order to increase the chance of a donor organ.

No policy violations on kidney transplants
In the case of lung transplantation too, the examiners had to identify "a number of abnormalities" which, according to the report, "in most cases could be attributed to oversight, ignorance or lack of care". In the field of kidney transplants, on the other hand, there were no indications of systematic guideline violations or manipulations. Likewise, no abnormalities have been recognized in the pancreatic and combined renal pancreas transplants, the report said.

Politicians demand stronger control
In spite of the abnormalities in some areas, most of the centers had worked "properly and correctly". "In many transplant centers a change in structure and culture is recognizable. Today, we can say that these measures are effective, "said Anne-Gret Rinder, chairman of the board of examiners, at the presentation of the annual report in Berlin.

"The examinations help to restore people's lost trust in transplantation medicine. This encourages us to continue our work as meticulously and efficiently in the next test period as we have done so far ", emphasized the Chairman of the Supervisory Commission, Prof. Dr. med. Hans Lippert.

Task should be transferred to the Robert Koch Institute
But critics call in view of the current situation, an even greater control of transplantation medicine: "The Federal Government has so far made little effort to establish a rule of law control of transplant centers," said the Greens health politicians Harald Terpe and Elisabeth Scharfenberg to the "dpa".

The German Foundation for Patients' Protection also continues to campaign for greater control of transplantation medicine in Germany. "The examination of the transplant system is a sovereign task and must be carried out continuously," said Foundation Board Eugen Brysch on. Accordingly, a transfer of this task by Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe (CDU) on the state Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is necessary, also had the current test cycle of three years be shortened.

It is not enough to review the past two to five years, according to Brysch, "rather the past 15 years have to be on the table." However, the audit should not be left to private organizations such as the German Medical Association, the hospital society or the GKV-Spitzenverband said Brysch in conversation with the "dpa". (No)