Hong Kong, 9 August 2016 – Hong Kong Baptist Hospital initiated its official partnership with The Department of Health in supporting the territory-wide Organ Donation Campaign, and has made a pledge to facilitate public understanding of the significance and importance of organ donation. A series of activities will be rolled out in order to encourage staff to register as supporters of the Campaign.
Organ donation has been regarded as a taboo in Chinese society. In some cases patients’ wishes are not known to family members and resulted in wastage of some healthy organs. In Hong Kong, there are more than 3,000 patients on the organ transplantation waiting list, and some die before the right organ is available. Public awareness on need for organ donation has been raised earlier because of the successful heart transplantation for a Chinese University student. Recently the Hospital Authority has announced setting up counters at all public hospitals to promote and assist prospective donors to register at the Centralised Organ Donation Register (CODR). The target is to boost up the number of existing registered organ donors from 200,000 to 400,000.
On 25 June 2016, Hong Kong Baptist Hospital participated in the Campaign with Dr Susan LOUIE, 1st Vice Chairman of the Board, and Dr Alex Wai Yin YU, Chief Executive Officer, attended the Organ Donation Promotion Charter kick-off ceremony. Dr YU explained why Baptist Hospital is interested in participating in this Campaign, “The ultimate goal of organ donation is to save lives. Encouraging more people to register as donor is to spread the notion of love and care, which are identical to our vision. We also wish to cultivate this caring value not just to the 2,200 Baptist Hospital staff but to their family members, friends and the public.”
Cornea Donation Talk to encourage staff to support organ donor
As the first and foremost publicity act, Hong Kong Baptist Hospital will host the Cornea Donation Talk on 10 August 2016 (Wednesday). The speaker, Cornea Donation Coordinator / Registered Social Worker Ms Amanda LUK from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, will introduce the mechanism of cornea collection and transplantation, and the requirements and selection of prospective donors. Audience will also learn from her the valuable experiences and challenges that she has encountered. Most importantly, the talk aims to motivate our staff to register at CODR.
More seminars and sharing sessions are scheduled to invite recipients of organ donation and their family members, together with staff who have already registered as donors to further spread the message and inspire people around. On the other hand, promotional leaflets of Organ Donation Campaign are placed in the Hospital, and promotional video will be broadcast alongside so as to disseminate the message to the general public.
Hong Kong Baptist Hospital is dedicated to fulfilling corporate social responsibility. Through active and continuous publicity we hope to raise up receptiveness towards organ donation in the society, and eventually giving those in urgent need a second chance at life.
Dr Wing Man KO, the Secretary for Food and Health, (second left); Professor Sophia CHAN, the Under Secretary for Food and Health, (first right); Dr Susan LOUIE, 1st Vice Chairman of the Board of HKBH, (first left); and Dr Alex Wai Yin YU, CEO of HKBH (second right)attended the Organ Donation Promotion Charter Launching Ceremony on 25 June 2016 to support and spread the message to the general public.
