China will see up to 20,000 organ transplants this year, with 4,000 organ donations, according to a former Chinese deputy health minister.

The figure is higher than the 11,000 organ transplants recorded last year and the 2,766 organ donations, which was a record.

In the coming years, Huang said China will become the country that carries out the most organ transplants around the world.

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Huang, however, said organ transplants remains a costly operation in China, affecting the poor and the less well off in the country, most of them die because they do not have enough resources to undergo transplants.

In order to help the poor and the less well off in China undergo organ transplants, Huang has proposed the inclusion of organ transplants in the country's critical illness health insurance scheme.

In an interview with The Beijing News, Huang, who is a delegate on the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the main advisory body of the Chinese government, said he has proposed the inclusion of kidney transplants in the state-backed health insurance scheme.

"Organ transplants in many countries are included in basic medical services. It's a matter of human rights and the government has an obligation to provide such public services," Huang said in the interview.

Huang also criticized the slow pace of China's public hospital reforms. He said the progress of the said reform had been stalled by the bureaucracy and conflicts of interests.

The former health official even said that some departments have become a hindrance to reform because of the conflicts over different objectives.

"Currently there are more than 20 departments that are involved in health-care reform. With the conflicts over different objectives, some departments have become a hindrance to reform," he said.

TagsChina Organ Transplant, China Organ Donation