Photo: Contributed - BC transplant

Transplants in British Columbia were up in 2012 and wait times for some procedures were down as BC Transplant marked its busiest year.

A release from the agency says 306 organs were transplanted last year, breaking the previous record of 295 transplants in 2010.

For example, the number of lung transplants increased to 25 from the previous record of 16 in 2010, and the most common operation was a kidney transplant, with 194 performed last year.

Executive director Dr. Greg Grant says creation of new roles to support the donation process at hospitals and closer collaboration with Vancouver's two transplant hospitals are making a difference.

A growing pool of donors is also being credited for the increase in life-saving operations, and BC Transplant notes the number of donors-per-million in the province now exceeds the national average.

BC Transplant says the median waiting time for patients needing a lung transplant plunged to 3.5 months last year, from nearly 11 months in 2011, while patients waited an average of just under four years for a new kidney in 2012, compared to five years and two months in 2011.