Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau inspected the operation of Hong Kong Children's Hospital today.

Prof Lo first met the hospital management and frontline healthcare staff. He then proceeded to visit the newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism laboratory, the family overnight rooms and the haematology and oncology ward, which was followed by a briefing by frontline healthcare staff on the hospital's service demand and manpower deployment.

Prof Lo thanked the healthcare staff for their professional and loving care for sick children.

He said since its commissioning, the hospital has been providing highly professional services to serve as a tertiary specialist referral centre, with the focus on handling complicated, serious, uncommon cases as well as paediatric diseases requiring multidisciplinary management. This is conducive to establishing and co-ordinating a coherent paediatric service network for enhancing the quality of healthcare services for children.

The health chief also visited Tsz-hei, a five-month-old baby girl who underwent successful transplant surgery at the hospital using for the first time, a heart donated from the Mainland.

He met Tsz-hei's parents and spoke to the healthcare team to gain a clearer picture of the young patient's latest condition.

Prof Lo said: “I am delighted to learn that Tsz-hei is making satisfactory progress towards recovery with her condition continuing to improve. I knew that the transportation of the heart from the Mainland and the transplantation process were no easy tasks. The transplant surgery also posed great challenges to the medical team.

“I am truly grateful to the team for their endeavours and persistence in saving and taking good care of Tsz-hei all along. Their act embodied the professionalism and noble spirit of Hong Kong's healthcare personnel in 'treating patients as relatives'.

“This collaboration also fully demonstrated the shared principle and mission of the Mainland and Hong Kong in protecting lives, which is of great significance. I would like to thank the central government and relevant Mainland authorities again for their solid support and co-ordination, and the donor's parents for their selflessness.

“In fact, the national human organ donation work has made remarkable achievements in recent years and the China Organ Transplant Response System is highly recognised by the World Health Organization and The Transplantation Society.”

Prof Lo stressed that although there is no standing mechanism in Hong Kong for sharing donated cadaveric organs with medical institutions outside Hong Kong including those in the Mainland, individual cases of cross-boundary organ import and transplant have all along been permitted and approved on a case-by-case basis under the laws of Hong Kong as the situation warrants.

“With regard to Hong Kong and the Mainland, in spite of the different regulations, allocation systems and clinical management of patients for organ donation and transplant, stringent requirements for areas such as acquisition, allocation, cross-boundary transportation of cadaveric organs formulated in accordance with international standards are in place in both Hong Kong and the Mainland,” he added.

Over the past three years, the number of organ transplants in Hong Kong has been on a downward trend due to the COVID-19 epidemic. At present, nearly 3,000 citizens are awaiting an organ transplant.

Prof Lo appealed to the public to register their wish to donate organs via the Centralised Organ Donation Register website and make their wish known to family members.