HÀ NỘI — Nearly 500 doctors and health workers from the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT) have registered to donate their organs and tissues at a ceremony on Friday.

The country now has a total of 7,400 donors.

The event was organised for the first time in Việt Nam by the National Coordination Centre for Organ Transplantation (NCCOT), the Việt Nam Human Bodies Donation Mobilisation Association and the NIHBT.

“The registration to donate organs or tissues of nearly 500 NIHBT’s doctors and workers have played a valuable role in encouraging the staff in the health sector to donate organs or tissues for saving the needy patients or for scientific research,” said NCCOT director Trịnh Hồng Sơn during the ceremony.

Sơn said that the organ transplantation sector had faced many difficulties due to the lack of organ sources, donors and consultation system for organ and tissues registration at the hospitals and medical stations nationwide.

The country has only two medical facilities, the NCCOT and the Chợ Rẫy general hospital, which can provide organ and tissues donation communication, consultation and registration services. This is an obstacle to the residents’ right to donate organs and tissues, as well as for the communication activities on organ donation mobilisation in the country over the past years, according to Sơn.

Sơn expected to receive closer collaboration and support from hospitals and medical facilities in developing the country’s organ donation registration and consultation system nationwide in the coming years.

NIHBT director Nguyễn Anh Trí said that the communication activities should be promoted to strengthen the community’s awareness about organ and tissues donation.

“Organ and tissue donation is a humanitarian activity. Government officials, especially doctors or health workers, should be involved in this humanitarian revolution,” said Trí. — VNS