'Cross-border organ transfer should be regularised'

The health minister said on Saturday the administration is currently in discussion with mainland authorities to streamline cross-border organ transfer arrangements. It comes after the Hong Kong Children's Hospital received a cord blood unit from Guangzhou on Thursday to treat a 5-year-old girl who suffers from thalassaemia. The patient will undergo surgery earliest by October. Lo Chung-mau said on a commercial radio programme that the Health Bureau hopes to eliminate the procedure of having to file an application and wait for an approval on each cross-boundary organ transplant case to mainland authorities. "Only a short amount of time is available when organ transplant is needed [to save a patient], regularisation the organ transfer arrangements can help patients find a suitable organ quickly. It would be best if authorities of two regions can notify the other whenever there is no suitable organ recipients in their area," Lo said. But the health chief noted that the difference in immigration control regulations on organs between the two regions poses a challenge towards the regularisation process. Meanwhile, Lo said the government will further develop the SAR's rare disease centre by collaborating with the mainland, so children with diseases in Hong Kong can be given the best treatment. "We have a rare disease centre in the Children's Hospital with the expertise, the geneticists, and also clinicians who are experts in these genetic disease... in collaboration with the mainland we are developing a rare disease centre, so hopefully in the future our babies and kids with diseases, they will be given the best of care," he said.