China to regulate organ transplants

August 9, 2005

BEIJING -- The Shanghai Morning Post newspaper reports that China is going to regulate organ transplants.

The newspaper quotes Professor Li Leishi from Nanjing General Military Hospital as saying Monday at a seminar that the Ministry of Health plans to issue organ transplant permits within the year.

According to the report, hospitals will not be allowed to do liver transplants on late-stage cancer patients.

The health authority will review hospitals' capabilities for organ transplant before issuing permits. The inspections will cover medical personnel, equipment, total number of organ transplantations performed, and quality of the operations.

The minimum standard for successful kidney and liver transplants is to guarantee patients 85 and 75 percent chance of survival respectively within one year.

Experts say transplant permits will not be issued for life. Hospitals will be periodically reviewed and may have their permits revoked if they fail to meet operating requirements.

Hospitals will not be allowed to invite doctors from outside to carry out the organ transplantations.

Experts at the seminar agreed that these new regulations will raise the survival rate from operations and force doctors to make better use of the limited number of organs available. The move is also expected to shorten waiting times for operations.

Experts say China's organ transplant sector is in chaos. Last year there were over 6,000 operations.

Some hospitals do not have the necessary expertise and equipment. But they carry out organ transplantation in order to upgrade the hospitals and attract more patients, causing a waste of medical resources.

Professor Zhu Youhua from the Military Institute of Organ Transplantation in Beijing said that more than 40 hospitals in the capital perform organ transplants. But more than half of them have only ever performed one or two operations. He suggests that only ten hospitals need to perform organ transplants to meet patients' needs.

In Shanghai, it is reported that 12 hospitals carry out organ transplants. One hospital has done only six operations and two of those failed.

The increasing number of hospitals with organ transplantations is due to an old stipulation that any hospital that applies for Grade A certificate must have the capacity to do organ transplant. That rule was abolished a few years ago but many hospitals still follow the practice.

Source: CRIENGLISH.com

Copyright © 2003 Xinhua News Agency.

This article posted August 31, 2005.