The global context Globally, persistent shortages of deceased-donor organs remain one of the greatest challenges to expanding access to solid-organ transplantation for individuals with end-stage organ failure. [3] In many countries, attempts have been made to increase deceased organ donation, with varying success. Generally, with successful initiatives, multipronged approaches include various combinations of the following: (i) legislative change, for example using the 'optout' rather than the 'opt-in' system; (ii) substantial government buy-in; (iii) robust hospital-based programmes that facilitate quick identification and referral of potential donors; and (iv) extensive human, infrastructural and health system resources to ensure sustainability. [4,5] Deceased-donor shortages persist in SA, resulting in the deaths of many patients waiting for organ transplants. [6] General roles of the TPC The exact scope of practice for TPCs varies from country to country, but their job encompasses some general responsibilities and duties. [7] These include promoting referrals, obtaining consent from the families of deceased donors, medical maintenance of the donor, and interprofessional communication (Fig. 1). This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0. HEALTHCARE DELIVERY