MO939: Role of The General Practitioner in Promoting Organ Donation

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS Organ transplants now play a significant role in the treatment of diseases that are nonetheless fatal. Organ and tissue transplantation in Morocco is severely delayed, and the number of transplants conducted in our country does not reach 10 per million inhabitants per year. Due to a scarcity of organs and tissues, the number of transplants and tissue grafts, which are primarily a Ministry of Health effort, is limited. The main link in the medical chain is the general practitioner. In addition to his solitary practice of medicine, he is already responsible for a number of public health missions, primarily in the fields of disease prevention and detection, as well as organ and tissue donation promotion. We conducted a quantitative cross-sectional study through a survey to measure the level of involvement and dedication of general practitioners in the promotion of organ donation. METHOD A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study, based on a questionnaire with 20 closed questions, self-administered, emailed, completed anonymously and voluntarily intended to the general practitioner of the region of Casablanca. Questionnaire data were collected, encoded and analyzed using SPSS-PC (Version 21.0). RESULTS Our study targeted 200 general practitioners in total, of which 165 responded to the questionnaire, giving an overall response rate of 82.5%. The average age of participants was 34.22. The duration of exercise varied between 1 and 40 years, with an estimated average of 11 years, 65% of the doctors practiced in the urban environment and ∼59.5% worked in the liberal sector. A total of 87% of the doctors questioned were in favor of organ donation, and 13% were against organ donation, for which the religious cause represented 78% and 16% refused for medical reasons, 54.5% of them had never discussed the subject with their relatives, and 80.5% of practitioners declared having a patient waiting or who had received an organ transplant. Only 38% of doctors had already discussed this subject with their patients, of whom >64% were following the sole initiative of the patient himself, and in none of the cases was awareness raising through posters in the waiting room. Only 1.5% of participants had brochures on organ donation in their waiting rooms, and >87% thought that TV shows in waiting rooms were a good means of information and awareness. CONCLUSION The involvement of general practitioners begins at the awareness stage, with the goal of disseminating information about organ donation.