What does the NTS do?

Together with hospitals, medical professionals, and other partners, we ensure a well-functioning, high-quality, and future-proof donation and transplantation process. Our goal: everyone who needs an organ or tissue receives it in time.

Complex process

A transplantation starts with a donor and ends with a patient who is helped with an organ or tissue. In between, a process takes place involving many people and organizations. Think of donor hospitals, transplant centers, laboratories, donation, retrieval, and transplant professionals, allocation teams (for a fair distribution of organs and tissues), tissue banks, and transporters on the road and in the air.

The best possible donation and transplant care

This complex process requires good coordination within the chain. That is the work of the Dutch Transplant Foundation: ensuring that, with all involved parties, we have a donation and transplant process that functions well, is effective, and is of high quality. In this way, we work together to provide the best possible donation and transplant care in the Netherlands. We do this with appreciation for donors and attention to their loved ones.

Tasks and roles of the NTS

The NTS performs this coordination of the chain on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), based on the Organ Donation Act, the Safety and Quality of Body Material Act, and other regulations. What does this involve?

Organ Center: statutory tasks

The NTS has various statutory tasks to ensure that the donation and transplantation of organs and tissues proceed properly. This follows from the Organ Donation Act. To carry out these tasks, the NTS has an Organ Center that is available 24/7 for doctors.

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Organ donation: statutory tasks

• Organ donation:consulting the Donor Register, reporting an organ donor, and managing the Quality and Safety protocol.
• Organ retrieval:organizing transport for retrieval teams and from the donor hospital to transplant centers.
• Allocation of organs:commissioning Eurotransplant for this purpose and maintaining and managing the national allocation policy, including allocation rules, the waiting list, and waiting list criteria. This is done in consultation with the Organ Advisory Committees of the Dutch Transplantation Society. European agreements are also included in this.
• Organ monitoring:delivering and interpreting data from the organ chain and handling and reporting incidents.

Collaborating in the organ chain

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Tissue donation: statutory tasks

• Tissue donation: consulting the Donor Register, donor screening and donor acceptance, and drafting and managing medical guidelines for donor screening.
• Tissue retrieval: commissioning the start of a tissue retrieval procedure and coordinating transport, which is handled via WUON (Tissue Retrieval Organization Netherlands).
• Allocation of corneas and heart valves: management of allocation rules, the waiting list, and waiting list criteria, in consultation with the Cornea Committee. European agreements are also incorporated into this.
• Tissue monitoring: delivering and interpreting data from the tissue chain, handling and reporting incidents.

Collaborating in the tissue chain

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Living donation: statutory tasks

• Allocation of kidneys from living donors: Executing and managing the cross-over program. Kidney donors decide for themselves who receives their kidney; there is often a family relationship. However, sometimes there is no match between the donor and the intended recipient. There are also donors who have no preference for a specific recipient (altruistic donors). To achieve a good match with a recipient and allocate the kidney fairly in these situations, the Organ Center manages a cross-over program.
• Monitoring:delivering and interpreting data from living donation.

Living donation

Chain collaboration in donation and transplantation

As a chain coordinator, the NTS also supports the Ministry of VWS, hospitals, transplant centers, and other collaborative partners in the operational chain of donation and transplant care. Efficiency and future-proofing are important principles in this regard.

• The NTS advises the ministry on the implementation of the organ and tissue chain and monitors its execution. This is done, among other things, based on nationally collected data in the donation and transplant process. Think of identifying trends, management information, and reporting and handling incidents.
• The NTS also often plays a role in the evaluation of, for example, new functions and the effectiveness of implemented innovations.
• We help in drafting frameworks and guidelines and support parties in making agreements.
• The NTS also initiates and supervises activities and projects to optimize the quality, safety, and effectiveness of donation.

In doing so, we take European agreements into account: the NTS has been designated by the Ministry of VWS as the competent authority to reach recommendations and guidelines regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation in European consultations.

Supporting advisory committees

In the transplant field, the secretaries support the national organ and tissue advisory committees of the NTV. The NTS makes follow-up data after transplantation transparent in dashboards per organ and tissue.

Contributing to innovations

The NTS also actively contributes to innovative developments such as aNRP (Abdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion), PROMs (Patient Reported Outcome Measures) and the matching program Crossover+.

Collaborating on projects

Supporting professionals

We also support professionals in their work in other ways. For example, we provide support resources: from IT support to visual aids. The NTS also offers a wide range of training: from e-learnings to workshops and webinars.