Legislator Dr Lo Wing-lok yesterday said the government should conduct an urgent review of the health-care system to avoid any more donor organs being wasted.
Dr Lo, who represents the medical sector, said the recent liver-transplant debacle highlighted the lack of a policy to prioritise medical services.
'What the government should not do is take fragmented measures such as asking patients to pay for drugs,' he said.
'It should have a comprehensive review of the health-care system and set priorities for services according to urgency, whether they are life-saving, or whether patients can afford them. With these clear-cut priorities the government can allocate resources accordingly.'
The government should have the political will to discuss the need for prioritising services amid limited resources.
He said with the lifting of the quota on liver transplants at Prince of Wales Hospital, administrators might have to sacrifice other services to finance the extra operations, which cost $1 million each.