The medical transplant organization released data yesterday showing the survival rate for patients 10 years after undergoing kidney transplant operations in Taiwan reached as high as 91 percent, a figure even better than that in the United States and most other advanced nations. The long-term survival rate for patients using kidneys from deceased donors was also high at 88 percent.

The organ transplant figures were compiled based on data provided by 27 hospitals in the Taiwan area.

Lee Po-chang, chairman of The Transplantation Society of Taiwan, said the acute shortage in donated organs forced most kidney patients in Taiwan to wait too long for organ transplants.

The patients have to resort to regular dialysis that costs NT$33 billion a year, accounting for 10 percent of the financial resources in the National Health Insurance program, he estimated.

Another alarming figure showed that about half of severe kidney patients have gone overseas to get transplants.

A total of 5,263 kidney patients in Taiwan received transplants in the past 10 years, but 50 percent of the operations took place abroad, nearly all concentrated in China.

The Taiwan patients are now in a more vulnerable situation after authorities in China enforced new rules prohibiting organ transplants for people from overseas because of pressure from international human rights groups.

However, the operations are still being carried out by smaller hospitals in China while costs have doubled to NT$1.5 million from NT$800,000.

Lee said Taiwan hospitals have top-notch medical experts and advanced facilities for organ transplants. But their contributions are restrained by the limited supply of organs from donors.

“The government should take more active and effective steps to encourage organ donation so as to help alleviate patients' suffering and improve their quality of life while at the same time, putting valuable medical resources to better use”, Lee said.

Taiwan has relatively high survival rates for organ transplant patients treated by the country's medical institutes.

Data released by the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) showed that the Taipei-based National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) has the highest five-year survival rate of 96 percent for kidney transplants.

The Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital registered the highest survival rate of 91 percent for liver transplants while Cheng Hsin Hospital in Taipei has the best performance in heart transplants, with an almost 80 percent three-year survival rate.