New kidney donation scheme starts in October after change in Hong Kong law allows strangers to donate organs to patients
This is aimed at speeding up the long waiting time for a suitable organ and surgeries will be done at four of the city’s 43 public hospitals
From October, kidney transplant patients whose family members are incompatible donors can join a scheme that will speed up the time taken to get a new organ.
The paired organ donation arrangement, made legal after Hong Kong passed an amendment to its Human Organ Transplant Ordinance last month, allows a donor-patient pair who may not be a match for each other to donate organs to another donor-patient pair and vice versa, so that patients on both sides get the transplants they need.
The scheme will start with kidney donations and surgeries will be carried out at four government hospitals – Prince of Wales, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary – the Hospital Authority, which manages the city’s 43 public hospitals, said on Thursday.
The authority’s senior manager Dr Sara Ho said patients she spoke to had welcomed the voluntary scheme.
“They have requested the programme be implemented as soon as possible, because it will give them an additional chance [to get a donor organ],” she said.