New transplant agency aim of private members bill

Calgary-Foothills MLA Len Webber plans to introduce a private member's bill on Thursday to create an agency to collect and distribute tissue and organ donations in Alberta.

Alberta Health Services manages the process right now through offices in the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton and the Foothills Hospital in Calgary but Webber believes it could be better coordinated.

"They both basically work relatively in silos," he said.

"I would like to see more of an amalgamation, more of a synergy between the two offices and to bring them together into one agency and have one agency basically take care of the entire process of human tissue and organ donation."

Alberta has the longest wait list in Canada for cornea transplants with waits up to two years.

The province also lags in organ donations, and Webber would like the new agency to create a public awareness campaign to get people to register online.

Webber decided to introduce the bill after meeting a woman whose condition is getting worse while she waits for a lung transplant.

He says he has support from both government and opposition MLAs.