China tightens organ transplant rules
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Health authorities on Tuesday required medical centers to report each case of organ transplant within 72 hours of the operation, in the latest move to regulate the procedure in the country.
Violators may have their medical licenses revoked, the Ministry of Health said in a notice.
"The new move will add more teeth to the laws on organ transplants," said Li Ning, director of the Beijing You'an Hospital, one of the 164 officially recognized organ transplant centers.
China promulgated its organ transplant regulation in 2007, which bans organ trafficking and only allows donations from living donors to blood relatives and spouses, as well as recipients considered "emotionally connected".
A number of hospitals, driven by huge profit and demand, have reportedly risked breaking the law by carrying out operations for foreigners willing to pay highly for the organs.
The latest 72-hour limit makes it harder for hospitals to fool authorities by handing in false information like the recipient's nationality, autho-rities said. On-site inspections after information is submitted will also make it easier to uncover malpractices, said Qian Jianmin, chief transplant surgeon with the Shanghai Huashan Hospital.
Hospitals were previously only required to report on a monthly basis information of the surgeries performed, including the profile of donors and recipients, to local health administrations, rather than the ministry.
"It's good for the ministry to tighten the reporting system and I hope it means what it says," Li said.
He said some hospitals, particularly those affiliated to the army, were found with irregularities and had not been punished accordingly.
Some of them carry out technically demanding operations without certification from the ministry, which put patients lives at risk and waste limited organ donations, he said.
After the ministry introduced an admittance system for organ transplants in 2007, some hospitals had been named for not complying with the regulations but none had their licenses revoked, Li said.
"I don't think it (the new move) can help end all those illegal practices overnight, given the huge demand in the life-saving surgery and the scarcity of donated organs," he said.
Currently, about 1 million people in China need transplants each year and only 1 percent of these receive the organs needed, official statistics show.
