China to continue organ transplantation reforms

World Today

China to continue organ transplantation reforms

China said it will continue to reform its organ transplantation system after the country adopted tough measures to crackdown illegal organ harvest.

An organ transplantation convention was held in Hong Kong recently. CCTV’s Mao Dan takes a look.

Huang Jiefu, initiator of the reform, told the attendees of the convention that the country has completed its first major step in a long journey, but it now needs more support to go further.

Huang is also the chairman of China’s organ donation & transplantation committee. “We started a very hard journey a decade ago,” Huang said. “In the year of 2005, the changes started with transparency. In 2007, a regulation was issued by the state council to guide China’s organ transplantation reform. In December 2014, I made an announcement that voluntary donation will be the only legitimate source for organ transplantation.”

With a functional management system and regulations in place, progress is visible- the rate of organ donation has been rising since a voluntary organ donation trial started in 2010.

And it will keep progressing. “The momentum continues in the year of 2016,” Huang said. “This year will be over 4,000 organ donations.”

But in order to meet the huge demand, China needs to double the number of its transplant hospitals. And it needs more organ donation coordinators.

Currently, China is training a total of 1,200 coordinators with the help from the international community.

The nation will also draw on foreign experience in expanding medical insurance coverage for organ transplantation, and in building a green channel for organ transportation.

In his speech, Huang Jiefu also said China will hold an international organ donation conference in Beijing in October, and the country has already drawn up a roadmap to lay out how it will accelerate the reforms.