What does the NTS do?
The Dutch Transplant Foundation (NTS) coordinates the chain of organ donation, tissue donation and transplantation nationwide. Read more about the role and tasks of the NTS.
Together with hospitals, medical professionals and other collaborative 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 on time.
Complex process
A transplantation starts with a donor and ends with a patient being 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, extraction and transplantation professionals, allocation teams (for a fair distribution of organs and tissues), tissue banks and road and air transport providers.
The best possible donation and transplantation care
This complex process requires good coordination within the chain. That is the work of the Dutch Transplant Foundation: ensuring that together with all involved parties, we have a donation and transplantation process that functions well, is effective and of high quality. In this way, we work together in the Netherlands to provide the best possible donation and transplantation care. We do this with appreciation for donors and attention to their loved ones.
Tasks and roles of the NTS
The NTS coordinates this chain on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), based on the Organ Donation Act, the Body Material Safety and Quality Act and other regulations. What does this involve?
Organ Centre: statutory tasks
The NTS has various statutory tasks to ensure the smooth progress of donation and transplantation of organs and tissues. This stems from the Organ Donation Act. To carry out these tasks, the NTS operates an Organ Centre that is accessible to physicians 24/7.
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 donor hospital to transplant centers.
- Organ allocation: commissioning Eurotransplant for this purpose and maintaining and managing 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 Transplant Society. European agreements are also taken into account.
- Organ monitoring:delivering and interpreting data from the organ chain and handling and reporting incidents.
Collaborating within the organ chain
Tissue donation: legal duties
- 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
Living donation: legal duties
- Allocation of kidneys from living donors:Executing and managing the cross-over program. Donors of a kidney decide themselves who receives their kidney, often a family relationship. But 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 in these situations and to allocate the kidney fairly, the Organ Center manages a cross-over program.
- Monitoring: delivering and interpreting data from living donation.
Advising VWS on issues in donation and transplant care
Commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), the NTS collaborates with the field on the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of policy.
In this context, the NTS places issues relevant to the donation and transplant care chain on the agenda, for example, and actively contributes ideas towards solutions.
- How do we handle the shortage of donor organs and ensure a fair distribution?
- How do we deal with societal developments such as organ donation after euthanasia?
- How can we make innovative developments widely available?
- How do we work together to carefully allocate capacity and budget amidst a growing supply of donors?
- How do we arrive at good quality indicators?
These are questions for which the NTS, together with the Dutch Transplantation Society (NTV) and other partners and professionals, develops policy and advises the Ministry of VWS.
Chain collaboration in donation and transplantation
Furthermore, as chain coordinator, the NTS supports the Ministry of VWS, hospitals, transplant centers, and other collaborative partners within the operational chain of donation and transplant care. Efficiency and future-proofing are important guiding 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, on the basis of nationally collected data within the donation and transplantation process. Think of identifying trends, management information, and reporting and handling incidents.
- The NTS also frequently plays a role in evaluating, for example, new functions and the efficiency of implemented innovations.
- We assist in drafting frameworks and guidelines and support parties in making agreements.
- Additionally, the NTS 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 participate in European consultations aimed at establishing recommendations and guidelines regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
Supporting advisory committees
In the transplantation field, the secretaries support the national organ and tissue advisory committees of the NTV. The NTS makes post-transplantation follow-up data transparent in dashboards for each 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 Cross-over+.
Supporting professionals
We also support professionals in their work in other ways. For example, we provide supportive tools: from IT support to visual aids. The NTS also offers a wide range of training: from e-learnings to training courses and webinars.
Collecting data
Together with the professional field, the NTS collects comprehensive data on the donation and transplantation process. For example, the outcomes of transplantation for patients and living donors of organs and corneas are collected in the Dutch Organ Transplantation Registry (NOTR), which is managed by the NTS.
On our data platform we collect even more, such as data on organ quality and data on patients on the waiting list. This gives the NTS a unique dataset.
We make this data accessible to professionals via dashboards and we identify and interpret trends in the data. We also provide data needed for research and for making choices about effective care. And we use data to develop predictive models.
Research and innovation
The NTS contributes to promising (inter)national research. In this way, together we aim to organize care processes with high quality and efficiency, and to design them for the future.
Public communication
Furthermore, through public communication, the NTS contributes to the conversation in society and at the kitchen table about organ and tissue donation. It is important that the Dutch people know what organ and tissue donation means and understand its value. This enables everyone to make an informed choice in the Donor Register.
We work on this daily via our public website, social media channels, campaigns, and other communication channels. The NTS also encourages people to know the wishes of their loved ones, to prevent surprises at an emotional moment.
Funding
In addition, the NTS manages a separate funding system for the organ chain (clearing house), because donation and transplantation are not 'ordinary' patient care. In doing so, the NTS ensures that costs incurred within the organ chain that cannot be reimbursed through regular healthcare funding are covered via the so-called organ budget. This organ budget is financed by health insurers.
On behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), the NTS also administers the Living Donation Subsidy Scheme. Living donors can have expenses incurred or lost income surrounding a donation reimbursed through this scheme. The NTS assesses the applications, ensures donors are familiar with the subsidy scheme, and handles the disbursement of the awarded amounts.
Legal frameworks
Clear frameworks and legislation are necessary for the smooth running of donation and transplantation. The NTS advises on changes in regulations and laws to ensure they align as closely as possible with practical reality. This provides clarity for all parties involved in the chain.
The NTS works with a great deal of sensitive personal data belonging to donors and patients. Safeguarding the privacy of all these individuals is our top priority. We therefore ensure that all NTS employees, as well as our chain partners, work in accordance with strict guidelines and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
External safeguards
The NTS plays a special and important role within the field of donation and transplantation. To ensure that tasks and responsibilities are carried out in accordance with guidelines and laws, various external safeguards have been established for control purposes.
The NTS is certified for both ISO9001 and NEN7510. In addition, the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate conducts an annual audit on the quality of the NTS's operations. Furthermore, the NTS as a whole is evaluated once every five years by an external research agency commissioned by the Ministry of VWS.