By writer to hongkongfp.com
The Hong Kong authorities has alleged {that a} small group of individuals filed functions to withdraw from the Centralised Organ Donation Register (CODR) with an goal of “disrupting the representativeness” of the system.
The comment got here after the town’s well being authorities acquired greater than 5,700 withdrawal functions over a five-month interval, greater than half of which had been later declared invalid.
The town’s opt-in system for organ donation, which has greater than 357,000 registrants at current, had seen “abnormalities” within the variety of withdrawals filed on-line not too long ago, the federal government stated in an announcement issued on Monday.
In keeping with the assertion, a complete of 5,793 withdrawal functions had been made by way of the register’s web site between December final yr and April, “considerably greater” than beforehand recorded. Amongst them, 2,907 requests had been stated to be invalid, because the candidates had by no means opted in to the centralised register, or had made repeated makes an attempt to withdraw.
In February alone, the proportion of invalid withdrawal submissions stood at 74 per cent, the assertion learn.
“It can’t be dominated out {that a} small variety of individuals have deliberately made withdrawal makes an attempt with the goal of disrupting the representativeness of the CODR and growing the executive burden on authorities personnel,” a spokesman for the federal government stated.
“The HKSAR Authorities strongly condemns such completely irresponsible behaviour,” they added.
The federal government stated Monday’s assertion was in response to latest public curiosity within the cross-boundary organ transplant mutual help mechanism between Hong Kong and mainland China.
Secretary for Well being Lo Chung-mau proposed integrating the hospitals in Hong Kong into the China Organ Transplant Response System.
The suggestion got here after a four-month-old Hong Kong woman affected by coronary heart failure underwent a transplant in December with an organ donated and delivered across the border. The center was allotted to the toddler after it couldn’t be matched with these ready for a transplant within the mainland.
Earlier this month, the well being minister stated the authorities had been discussing the potential for allotting organs with no native match to mainland Chinese language sufferers. Such an association wouldn’t have an effect on the allocation of organs in Hong Kong, he stated, whereas the proposed mechanism would function a “second layer” of donation to profit extra sufferers.
Ming Pao reported in early Could that some Hongkongers had posted on social media expressing their reluctance to donate organs to the mainland. Some stated they withdrew from the centralised register because of this, whereas some known as on others to cancel their registration.
Such appeals had been “extraordinarily irresponsible” and “actually went towards the spirit of selfless love in organ donation,” the Well being Bureau instructed Ming Pao on the time. These people “distorted” the event and allocation system of organ donation within the mainland, the federal government added.
“Some people additionally wantonly vilify the constructive significance of the proposed institution of a standing mutual help mechanism for transplant by the 2 locations, undoubtedly despising the inseparable ties between residents of Hong Kong and the Mainland,” the federal government assertion learn.
As of March 31, shut to three,000 sufferers in Hong Kong had been waiting for organ transplantation underneath the Hospital Authority, in response to figures supplied by the statutory physique administration public hospitals within the metropolis. Amongst them, greater than 2,430 individuals had been ready for kidney donation.
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