About Organ Donation New Zealand
Organ Donation New Zealand (ODNZ) is the national service for deceased organ and tissue donation. We’re a team of nurse specialist donor coordinators and medical specialists, part of New Zealand Blood and Organ Service and available 24 hours a day.
We coordinate the donation of organs and tissues from deceased donors throughout New Zealand, for transplant units and tissue banks here and sometimes in Australia. Our donor coordinators provide information and ongoing support for the families who generously agree to donation.
We also work with health professionals across the country, providing education and training so that donation processes are excellent and nationally consistent.
What principles guide our work?
Equity
Every opportunity for deceased organ donation should be recognised by intensive care staff, and every family should have donation discussed with them with compassion, respect, and appropriate knowledge and skill. Donation should be discussed with all families, whether or not 'donor' is on the driver licence.
Process
Donation must accord with good medical practice, ethical standards and the law.
The Human Tissue Act 2008 requires consent before organs or tissues may be removed for transplantation.
Respect
The family's decision is always respected.
Every donation comes out of human tragedy, and donation by the family is voluntary.
What does a donor coordinator do?
A donor coordinator is available 24 hours a day to receive referrals of potential donors. After a family agrees to donation, the coordinator gathers the medical information, liaises with the transplant units and tissue banks, and organises every aspect of the retrieval.
Afterwards, they provide information and support for the donor's family. For some families, that support continues for years.
Where did ODNZ come from?
The Donor Coordination Service was established in 1987 at Green Lane Hospital, at the same time that heart transplantation began in New Zealand.
In 2005 the service became Organ Donation New Zealand.
Today, ODNZ is part of NZ Blood Service.
Read our annual report
New Zealand Blood Service
Organ Donation New Zealand (ODNZ) operates under the guardianship of New Zealand Blood Service.
As a Crown entity, we formally acknowledge tangata whenua as the people of the land, and the mana of the founding agreement between Māori and the Crown, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We acknowledge the important landmarks of this land.
Learn more about NZ Blood ServiceWhat does our logo mean?
Three interlacing circles: the donor, the donor's family, and the recipient.
The circles never quite meet, because donor families and recipients never learn each other's identities, yet they are linked forever through the donation.
The strokes echo the cycles of all living things: a beginning, an end, and, through donation, life renewed from the ending of another.
We are committed to providing a respectful and compassionate organ and tissue donation service that enables life-changing transplantation.
We are committed to providing a respectful and compassionate organ and tissue donation service that enables life-changing transplantation.