New system for organ donors starts nationwide

A new system for the management and distribution of donated organs will soon go into operation nationwide, Deng Haihua, spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said Wednesday.

Technical means will be used to monitor intervention in organ distribution, Deng said, adding that the system, which has been in development since 2010, is ready to go into use nationwide after several successful trials.

The commission will also introduce rules concerning the obtaining, distribution and management of organs in order to make the distribution process more transparent, he said.

The use of the system will be compulsory in an effort to ensure the transparency and fairness of organ transplants, Deng added.

All patients currently on organ waiting lists will be ranked according to their degree of need, he said.

"The system will be used in line with organ distribution policies and will automatically match organs and recipients in accordance with their degree of medical need, as well as the donor and recipient's compatibility," Deng said.

Government statistics indicate that about 1.5 million Chinese need transplants, but only around 10,000 operations are performed annually due to a lack of donors.

It is no secret that organs taken from executed prisoners are an important source for transplants in hospitals.

But this reliance is expected to end within two years, as the organ donation system will encourage more people to donate, former Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said last year.

During the trials of the system, 38 authorized institutions obtained 720 organs from 353 donors through the system, the commission's figures showed.

Since the central government started to monitor the country's organ donation system closely in 2010, by July 8 this year, 2,498 organs had been transferred from 918 donors. Meanwhile, the share of organs sourced from posthumous donations has risen to 15 percent from nearly zero three years ago.

Global Times - Xinhua