Lawmakers and a patients' rights group yesterday demanded hospital administrators immediately scrap the 'ridiculous' quota system for liver transplants.
Democrat Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, a member of the Legislative Council health services panel, said he would propose the panel hold an emergency meeting to discuss the incident revealed by the South China Morning Post in which a donor liver was wasted because a transplant was blocked due to cost considerations.
'It is a very serious matter,' he said. 'No human life can be bargained over and put after cost-cutting.'
Mr Cheng said the quota system at the Prince of Wales Hospital which limits liver transplants to one a month should be abolished at once before there was a repeat incident.
Professor Allan Chang Mang-zing, chief executive of the Prince of Wales Hospital, has defended his decision to block the operation, saying it was difficult to allocate limited resources.
Mr Cheng agreed it was unfair to put all the blame on Professor Chang, saying the donor system should be reviewed.
