Uganda Human Organ Donation and Transplant Act

The provision lists what constitutes the funds of the Council, including parliamentary appropriations, money accrued in performing functions, approved grants or donations, borrowed money under this Act and the Public Finance Management Act, and other sources approved by the Minister and the Minister responsible for finance.

The Council must follow sound financial principles and conduct its business so revenue, depreciation provision, and loss offsets are properly provided for.

The Council must, with the Accountant General's authorisation, open and maintain necessary bank accounts; the Chairperson must bank money received promptly and must ensure no withdrawals occur without Council authority.

Sets duties for preparing and approving the Council's estimates: the Executive Secretary must prepare and submit estimates to the Council within three months before year-end; the Chairperson must submit Council-approved estimates to the Minister within two months after receipt; the Minister must forward the estimates to the Minister responsible for finance for budget approval under the Public Finance Management Act.

The Chairperson must keep proper books and prepare an annual financial statement (subject to Council directions); the Auditor General or an appointed auditor may require further financial information in writing.

The Auditor General (or an auditor appointed by them) must audit the Council's accounts every financial year under the National Audit Act; the Council must submit its statement of accounts to that auditor within three months after each financial year-end.

Requires the Council to submit an annual report (including audited accounts and the Auditor General's report) to the Minister within three months after each financial year, requires the Minister to send the report to Parliament within two months of receipt, and requires the Council to publish the report and audited accounts in a national newspaper within six months after each financial year.

The Council must at all times comply with the Public Finance Management Act.

People who perform post-mortem or anatomical examinations or collect tissue must perform a post-mortem on all cadaveric donors at the same time as organ harvesting to determine cause of death and donor suitability, avoid unnecessary mutilation, and conduct the work in an orderly and decent manner.

Sets testing, preservation, processing, storage and distribution requirements for removed organs, tissues and cells via Minister-approved banks; requires authorisation from the Council to import human organs, tissues or cells for transplantation; mandates inspections of approved banks at least every two years; and tasks the Minister with prescribing detailed requirements by regulations.

The Minister must issue standards for banks, and a bank approved under this Act must comply with standards issued by the Minister in consultation with the Council.

The Council must establish and operate an organ donation and transplant quality control system; the Council must ensure adverse-event information is shared with transplant professionals; the Minister may make regulations imposing further requirements.

A designated transplant centre must establish quality assurance programmes as prescribed by regulations and must investigate and report any adverse reaction information to the Council for review within thirty days in the manner prescribed by regulations.

A designated transplant centre must have a written recall procedure covering recall of organs, tissues or cells; notifying recipient hospitals about possible contamination or defects; and other suitability factors.

Banks and designated transplant centres must have look-back procedures to notify relevant parties if they may have received infected organs, cells or tissues, and documentation of those procedures must be included in their policies.

Test results must be notified to donors and recipients of organs, tissues and cells in a manner prescribed by regulations.

After removal of an organ, tissue or cell for transplantation, the registered medical practitioner must take steps to preserve it in accordance with the Act, regulations and Ministerial standards.

The Minister must, in consultation with the Council, establish standards for storage of harvested organs, tissues and cells; designated transplant centres and approved banks must ensure their facilities and equipment comply with those regulations and standards.

Approved banks and designated transplant centres must package human organs, tissues and cells as prescribed by regulations and standards issued by the Minister, and banks or designated transplant centres must ensure storage containers are clearly and indelibly labeled as prescribed by regulations.

The Council must establish and maintain a national waiting list for potential organ, tissue and cell donors and recipients drawn from designated transplant centres, hospitals and health centres.

The Council must ensure organs, tissues and cells are allocated to patients on the national waiting list fairly and equitably as prescribed by the Minister; if no suitable recipient is on the list the Council may authorise allocation or sharing with recognised national or international transplant organisations.

Transplant procedures must be carried out by registered health professionals and the Council must set donor-identification criteria and dispatch retrieval teams; the team confirming brain death must not be involved in harvesting.

Persons must not perform transplants without prior authorisation from the Council; the Council must give authorisation expeditiously, may exempt certain transplant processes by statutory instrument, and persons and designated transplant centres that perform exempted transplants must report to the Council within twenty-four hours. Contravention is an offence punishable by a fine up to fifty thousand currency points or up to ten years imprisonment, or both.

The Council must not authorise removal of organs, tissues or cells from a dead person when the death is suspicious until a police investigation is completed and notification under section 53(10) is given; and a person entrusted with a body solely for interment, cremation or disposal must not give authority for removal. Contravention is an offence punishable by a fine up to ten thousand currency points or imprisonment up to seven years, or both.

A designated transplant centre must have a consistent policy and operational procedures for conducting and documenting donor examinations and related record and death-investigation documentation.

A registered medical practitioner may, with relevant consent and in accordance with the Act, remove any organ, tissue or cell from a potential donor to examine its viability for transplantation and the safety for the recipient.

A designated transplant centre must carry out tests to determine a donor's suitability before harvesting an organ, tissue or cell, following this Act, regulations and Ministerial standards.

Hospitals, nursing homes or institutions must preserve and transfer suitable parts of a brain-dead person's body to a designated transplant centre; the designated centre must notify the Council immediately and within seven hours, and must not harvest organs, tissues or cells without Council approval.

The registered medical practitioner in charge of a designated transplant centre must ensure consent (documented in writing) is obtained before harvesting organs, tissues or cells; a designated transplant centre must ensure personnel are trained about obtaining and documenting consent.

A designated transplant centre must have a policy for reconstruction of a donor's body to maintain the donor's dignity; the Minister may issue regulations for reconstruction after donation.

The Council must establish and maintain a human organ, tissue and cell database in a manner prescribed by regulations.

Designated transplant centres must collect, maintain and quarterly report specified donor, recipient, organ, processing, distribution, revenue and expense data to the Council.

Designated transplant centres must keep prescribed records about organs, tissues and cells; those records are submitted to the Council quarterly; the Council must report annually to the Minister; contraventions are an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding twenty thousand currency points or up to four years' imprisonment, or both.

Banks and designated transplant centres must keep full, legible, confidential records about donors and recipients, ensure medical reviews and traceability, assign unique identification numbers to donated materials, maintain equipment and inspection records, and enable authorised access for inspection.

A registered medical professional authorised to harvest or transplant organs, tissues or cells must provide accurate information in a form that the donor, close relation or recipient can understand.

All data collected under the Act, including genetic data, must be kept confidential and subject to internationally agreed medical and personal data protection rules; data accessible to third parties must be anonymized. Medical information necessary for treatment and traceability may be transmitted. Donor information may be communicated to a recipient with both parties' consent only after at least five years from donation/transplant and as prescribed by regulations.

Commercial dealing in human organs, tissues or cells for reward or payment is prohibited, with narrowly defined reimbursements and penalties for offences.

It is an offence for a person providing services at or outside a hospital to remove human organs, tissue or cells for transplantation without authority; penalties include a fine up to one hundred thousand currency points or up to twelve years' imprisonment (or both) for hospital-related offences and life imprisonment for removals outside hospital.

The section prohibits trade and trafficking in human organs, tissues and cells, bans using force for donation, allows certain non-gain payments with Council approval, requires Council authorisation for publicity about transplantation, and makes contravention an offence punishable by life imprisonment.

It is an offence for a person to remove an organ, tissue or cell from another person for transplantation without authorisation and appropriate consent; the offender is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

Prohibits a person from using or storing donated material for purposes that are not qualifying purposes and sets penalties on conviction.

If an offence under the Act by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or attributable to neglect of a director, manager, secretary or similar officer, that person as well as the body corporate commits the offence and may be prosecuted and punished.

A person who contravenes this Act, its regulations, or a designation condition with no separate punishment is liable on conviction to a fine up to one hundred thousand currency points, or imprisonment up to twelve years, or both.

A designated transplant centre must ensure donors, recipients and their families receive appropriate counselling as prescribed by regulations.

A person who gave consent may revoke it at any time before harvesting without justification; after harvesting or transplantation, a person may not revoke consent or demand the return of an organ, tissue or cell.

Council or authorised officers may inspect regulated premises, require and copy records, seize and retain items for Council purposes, and designated transplant centres or banks must comply with facility requests.

The Minister must make regulations by statutory instrument to carry the Act into effect and lay them before Parliament.

The Minister may issue a code of practice (in consultation with the Council) and must consult stakeholders before preparing it and publish it in the Gazette; the code may provide for specified matters such as storage, use, removal, post-mortem procedures, consent, import/export and disposal of relevant material.

The Minister may amend Schedule 1 by statutory instrument with Cabinet approval, and may amend Schedules 2 and 3 by statutory instrument.