Press Releases

SFH on organ transplant

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a public function today (April 23):

Reporter: (About organ transplant coordinators)

Secretary for Food and Health: The Hospital Authority (HA) attached great importance to the improvement of organ transplant coordinators' work. There is a recent increase in the number of organ transplant coordinators to nine in total. They further plan to establish a very important post in the HA headquarters so as to ensure that the work of organ transplant coordinators who are attached to seven hospital clusters could have better central coordination. Separately, the HA will also work with clinical departments which look after potential organ donors and to increase the awareness of clinical staff who they can notify organ transplant coordinators of any potential organ donors.

Reporter: ... Can you tell us more about cadaveric donors?

Secretary for Food and Health: I think that there is a general consensus amongst medical professionals that we should focus (to identify cadaveric donors). We hope that the majority of organ donors are cadaveric. At the same time, we cannot oversight the fact that there could be patients in dire urgent situation who require organ transplant within one or two days and might not be able to wait until a cadaveric donor turns up. Therefore, living donor is still an important part of the organ transplant arrangement. For living donors, we need to bear in mind the fact that we have the principle in Medicine -- "first, do no harm". For living donors, we should treat them very carefully and ensure that they are physically suitable as well as having mature mindset to consider the pros and cons of being a living donor.

(Please also refer to Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Sunday, April 23, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:51
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