Barbados is set to spearhead a major regional health initiative by proposing the creation of a CARICOM organ donor bank, ​Minister of Health Senator Lisa Cummins has told the Senate as she introduced the first-ever draft law on organ donations.

The proposal is to be made at the September meeting of the CARICOM Council on Health and Social Development meeting in Guyana.

The organ donor bank would expand the pool of available organs across millions of people intraregionally, moving beyond the limitations of individual island populations to save more lives, she said.