Updated regulation coming for organ donation

Organ procurement organizations must ensure the traceability of organ donors, according to a regulation on procurement and distribution of donated organs released by the top health authority on Jan 28.

OPOs should register information on potential donors in the China Organ Transplant Response System, a computerized platform to share and distribute donated organs while making assessments of the donors, the regulation, released by the National Health Commission, said.

OPOs also should establish medical records for organ donors and keep them properly, and the records should include detailed information of the donors, including their personal identity, written consent for organ donation, death records, organ retrieval records, and assessment of the quality of organs acquired, the regulation said.

Red Cross staff must witness the procurement of organs and the surgeries to do so can only be performed at medical institutions, the regulation said.

All donated organs must be distributed automatically through the China Organ Transplant Response System to ensure fair distribution, it said.

The regulation, to be carried in force on March 1, is a revision to one adopted in 2013. Many of the measures specified in the new regulation are already in practice, the National Health Commission said.

Last year alone, more than 6,300 people donated organs after death, and more than 20,000 transplant surgeries were performed, it said.