Govt To Improve Organ Donation Programme: Lo

The Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau said on Thursday that the government is actively looking into ways to improve the existing organ donation programme, days after authorities said it saw an unusual spike in the number of de-registrations.

Speaking in the Legislative Council on a motion about organ transplants, the health chief said the Department of Health and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer will come up with improvements to the online register as quickly as possible, adding the recent withdrawals show that the system has room to improve.

Lo stressed that the act of registering for the programme has no legally-binding powers and is entirely voluntary.

"Those who have registered may not necessarily eventually donate their organs, on the other hand, many people who have not registered ... finally the family decided to donate their organ," he said.

The health chief said the programme was set up decades ago to promote organ donation to help patients in need of organ transplants, and to allow the family of people who wish to donate their organs after they die, know of their intentions.

Lo said it was unfortunate that a small number of people were trying to "attack" the system.

"We condemn any of these actions of putting up fake information in the media to try to misguide our citizens to withdraw from the registry," Lo said.

The motion on supporting cross-border organ matching with the mainland – proposed by medical sector lawmaker David Lam – was passed by Legco.