Press Release

Better public understanding helps promote organ donation

20 November 2015

A focus group study conducted by the Department of Health (DH) revealed that traditional beliefs and family factors, together with certain misunderstandings and worries among the general public, have led to their reservations about organ donation. However, enhancing public understanding about organ donation can help to ease their concerns and increase their willingness to donate organs after death.

The Assistant Director of Health (Health Promotion), Dr Anne Fung, in a joint press conference with the Hospital Authority (HA) to promote organ donation today (November 20), highlighted the key findings of the focus group study.

Dr Fung said, "The Centralised Organ Donation Register (CODR) has entered its seventh year. As at October 31, 2015, there are now over 179,000 registrations recorded in the CODR. The new registration number in the CODR this year (as at October 31) is 20, 461. A downward trend on the annual new registration number in CODR has been observed since 2013."

She pointed out that according to the Behavioural Risk Factor Survey (BRFS) conducted by the DH in 2013, the percentage of respondents who were not willing to donate organs increased significantly from 8.8 per cent in 2011 to 17.5 per cent in 2013. In view of the downward trend of CODR annual registration numbers and the findings of the BRFS, the DH further conducted a focus group study in April this year to gauge the views of the general public on organ donation.

The study revealed that the views of participants who are willing to donate organs include the ability to help others, organs being of no use after death, positive influence by mass media, better understanding of organ donation, and mentality change with increasing age.

The views of those who are unwilling or have not yet decided to donate organs include personal and family factors such as the traditional mindset of full body burial, objection by family members, the issue being irrelevant to young people, and elderly people who consider their organs as not suitable.

Moreover, the participants had doubts about the process of organ transplantation (insufficient knowledge on transplantation procedure, worries over surgical failure and organ wastage, doctors' failure to rescue, and disfigurement of the deceased) and CODR (worries over data security and insufficient knowledge about the operation of the Register).

Dr Fung said, "The study also revealed that the majority of the respondents will agree to allow their family members to donate organs after death if they have expressed their desire beforehand. Even those respondents who are unwilling to donate organs themselves tend to respect their family members' wish to donate organs. However, if their family members never expressed their willingness to donate organs, the respondents tend to make decisions according to their own willingness."

Dr Fung said that strengthening publicity and promotion can enable the public to realise how organ donation can help others in need, and reduce their misunderstandings and worries. Furthermore, the public are encouraged to catch every opportunity to discuss with their family, for example, expressing the wish of donating organs to family members when watching news, advertisements or programmes about organ donation on television, and allowing family members to accomplish their wish to benefit others after death.

Dr Fung emphasised, "All data collected in the CODR is classified as personal data and treated with strict confidentiality. Those data are only accessible to authorised parties and the public do not need to worry about data leakage."

Also speaking at the press conference, the Chief Manager (Cluster Performance) of Hospital Authority (HA), Dr Chung Kin-lai, introduced HA's network on deceased organ allocation, allocation criteria on cadaveric organs, and transplantation success rate.

Dr Chung said, "The HA recruited two additional Organ Donation Coordinators (ODCs) in 2015/16, bringing the total number to nine. Collaboration among community partners including the DH and other related professional parties was essential in promoting organ donation in the community. ODCs will help support, organise and co-ordinate promotional efforts."

The Hospital Authority Organ Donation Coordinator, Ms Cheung Suk-man, demonstrated how to make use of the CODR to search for the expressed wish of potential donors previously signed up to donate organ(s) after death. This will assist potential donors' family members in giving their consent to the donation of their loved one's organ(s).

In addition, a donor's relative, whose deceased family member had previously signed the donation card, spoke about the experience of agreeing to the donation of their loved one's organs. A recipient also expressed his heartfelt thanks for the altruistic contribution of his donor. Both of them appealed to members of the public to register their wish to give the gift of life to patients in need.

For more information on organ donation, please visit the DH's "organ donation" thematic website ( www.organdonation.gov.hk ). The DH has set up the "Organ Donation@HK" Facebook fan page ( www.facebook.com/organdonationhk ). Members of the public are invited to "like" and "share" the fan page, and to follow the latest information.