ONTARIO’S Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Dr. Eric Hoskins on Tuesday issued the following statement on online organ donor registration in Ontario:

ORGAN and tissue donation is incredibly important – one donor can save up to eight lives and help 75 more by donating tissue.  Ontarians have generously registered online at ServiceOntario.ca/BeADonor, in person and by mail to become donors – and for that I thank them sincerely.

I was recently informed of technical issues with our online registration website at ServiceOntario.ca/BeADonor.  For some individuals who registered online between March 23, 2013 and September 19, 2014, this technical issue may have resulted in incomplete or inaccurate records.

As soon as we discovered this issue, I took swift action to fix the problem.  We took the website down, resolved the technical issue, and the website is now back up so that people can continue to register as organ and tissue donors.

This technical issue did not in any way impact organ and tissue donations made by registered individuals. This technical problem also did not in any way impact the security of anyone’s information whether they registered online or by another means.

Just under 60,000 individuals registered or updated their information online during the period when the technical issue was present. Online registrations represent about 12 per cent of new registrations. At my request, those individuals will receive a letter describing the technical issue and its resolution. It will also provide instructions on how they can update their information to ensure it is both complete and accurate.   All registered donors can, at any time, update their information in person at any ServiceOntario office or they can also visit ServiceOntario.ca/BeADonor to change or update their information.   We have also set up a dedicated hotline at 1-844-209-9287 to answer any questions from the public.

I am pleased that this issue has been resolved quickly, and that we have put in place a number of ways for individuals to ensure this issue is fixed. While this matter was addressed successfully, as Minister, I believe it is important that we continue to handle it in an open and transparent manner, because this can only strengthen the public’s confidence in our health care system.