“We hope to understand the reasons behind the withdrawals. Currently, we are still at the stage of learning,” Lam told reporters at the legislature. “It is too early to determine whether there are any inappropriate conditions or illegal issues. We don’t have enough information for that.”

Hong Kong to benefit from proposed organ donation scheme with mainland: experts

The city’s organ donor registration system should also be improved by requiring more personal details, the Hong Kong Transplant Sports Association suggested after reports of an unusual rise in people applying to withdraw from the register since December, a situation that sparked condemnation from Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday and a police investigation.

Dr Chau Ka-foon, the honorary president of the association, underscored the need for the government to look into the reasons for the withdrawals.

Chau said the donor registration system had room for improvement, as it required little information from donors and did not ask for personal details such as age and gender. She urged the government to enrich its information base about donors, including their reasons for registration as well as their age range.

Lawmaker Chan Hoi-yan said the registration system was “outdated” and suggested designing a few simple questions for people to answer when they attempted to withdraw from the platform, such as whether they were leaving the city, and if they needed to be referred to a hotline for follow-ups.

Shorter wait for transplants? Hong Kong weighs cross-border organs exchange

“This can lead people to think again about their withdrawal, and also provide the government with more information,” she said.

She added that the number of donors in Hong Kong was relatively low.

Health Bureau figures showed 5,785 residents applied to withdraw from the Centralised Organ Donation Register between last December and April.

More than half, or 2,905 applications, involved people who had never signed up or made repeated attempts to withdraw.

The percentage of bogus withdrawal applications was as high as 74 per cent in February alone. From 2018 to 2022, the number of withdrawals a year ranged from 266 to 1,068. The system had 357,668 registrations in April.

The bureau on Monday said it could not rule out that a “small number of people” had intentionally made withdrawal attempts to disrupt the register.

Police said their cybersecurity and technology crime bureau was investigating and officers would continue to monitor related online activities for any possible illegal acts.

The surge in withdrawal applications started after the government said it hoped to establish a cross-border donation mechanism following the case of a Hong Kong baby girl who received a donated heart from the mainland in December, in the first arrangement of its kind.

The plan under consideration would be a second-tier mechanism which can be activated immediately if suitable matches for patients and transplants cannot be found locally.

Addressing the public’s concerns about the proposed scheme, Chau said Hong Kong had a high usage of donated organs, and it was rare that no suitable patients could be identified for transplants.

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On the other hand, the large number of donors across the border meant there was a higher chance of organs being given to Hong Kong by the mainland, she said.

Chau said she opposed the idea of reserving organs for local use as it “violates the spirit of organ donation”.

Alex Lam Chi-yau, the chairman of pressure group Hong Kong Patients’ Voices, said the government should also respect donors’ wishes.

“If the government does not offer such an option, some donors will choose not to donate their organs,” he said.

Additional reporting by Willa Wu