Last updated: 2026-09-13

The March 2026 issue of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch, published by the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health, cites "a territory-wide retrospective cohort study" for the statement that the number of existing chronic kidney disease cases among adults in Hong Kong rose from 181 778 in 2010 to 405 833 in 2021. The same paragraph, in the sentences that follow, states that new cases over the same period fell — from 41 684 to 40 723, an average annual decrease in incidence of 2.0%, and of 3.7% a year after adjusting for age. Separately, the 2024 update report of the Hong Kong Renal Registry states that as at 31 December 2022 there were 11 115 patients registered in the Renal Registry for renal replacement therapy (that is, dialysis or a functioning transplant); the same report states at the outset that the registry captures patients treated by the Hospital Authority, and that the Hospital Authority provides more than 90% of renal replacement services in Hong Kong. ⚠️ These two figures cannot be divided into one another. 405 833 is a count of prevalent cases aged 18 and above identified from records by a journal cohort study (a prevalence of 6 296.4 per 100 000 population, implying a population base of about 6.45 million); 11 115 is a count of people on a treatment register, which the report's introduction does not restrict to adults (1 492 per million population, implying a population base of about 7.45 million). What can be said is this: the number of chronic kidney disease cases identified by the study runs into the hundreds of thousands, while the number registered for renal replacement therapy is eleven thousand-odd, and the two are not the same people — which is the easiest thing on this subject to get wrong. This article sets out only figures and arrangements that official bodies and the registry have already published. It does not recommend any treatment and cannot assess any individual condition — which form of dialysis, and when to start, are decided by the doctor and the patient on the clinical situation.

What is chronic kidney disease? What do the kidneys actually do?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) means abnormalities of kidney structure or function, present for at least three months, with implications for health. That is this site's summary of the definition in Table 1 of the KDIGO 2024 guideline; it does not mean that every patient's kidney function will keep declining until dialysis is needed. The March 2026 issue of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch describes what the kidneys do as follows:

The kidneys are the primary organs of the human urinary system. Acting as the body's wastewater treatment plant, they filter up to 200 litres of blood each day to remove excess fluids and metabolic wastes. In addition, the kidneys also produce essential hormones that regulate blood pressure, facilitate red blood cell production and activate vitamin D to enhance bone health. Once kidney function becomes impaired, it can trigger a cascade of health problems.

The same page lists six kidney functions: "Maintain fluid balance in the body", "Remove metabolic waste from the body", "Regulate minerals and electrolyes in body fluids, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium", "Regulate blood pressure", "Facilitate red blood cell production", "Activate vitamin D to maintain bone health".

In other words, the kidneys do more than pass urine. The same publication describes the course of the disease:

Chronic kidney disease is a growing public health challenge, strongly linked to other chronic illnesses. It involves a gradual, irreversible decline in kidney function and, if untreated, can cause complications such as cardiovascular diseases, anaemia, bone disorders, and ultimately end-stage kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplantation1.

That paragraph describes a severe course; it does not mean that every patient with CKD will inevitably deteriorate to end-stage kidney failure, and the KDIGO definition above also covers patients whose kidney function is relatively stable.

The same publication also notes the importance of prevention: "Apart from non-modifiable factors such as age and genetics, most cases of chronic kidney disease can be prevented." — preventing the disease and slowing its progression in people who already have it are related but different goals.

There may be no obvious symptoms early on. The publication writes: "Known as a 'silent killer,' chronic kidney disease often shows no early symptoms. Many patients remain unaware until severe kidney impairment is detected. Globally, only about 10% of high risk individuals know they have the condition." — the "about 10%" is a global figure, not a Hong Kong figure.

Who most needs to know: people who have just seen an abnormal kidney function result in a check-up report, or who have diabetes or high blood pressure themselves or in the family. The same publication states: "Diabetes is the most common cause of chronic kidney disease; 1 in 6 diabetic patients project a rapid deterioration of renal function."

Where does 405,833 come from? Did the Government count heads?

It is a case count identified by a study from Hospital Authority medical records, not a household-by-household count of the whole population. The text on page 4 of the March 2026 issue of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch:

A territory-wide retrospective cohort study 11 reported that the number of existing chronic kidney disease cases among adults increased from 181 778 in 2010 to 405 833 in 2021. The overall prevalence per 100 000 persons increased from 3 065.8 to 6 296.4, with an average annual increase of 6.7%. In contrast, the number of new chronic kidney disease cases decreased from 41 684 to 40 723 over the same period, with an overall incidence per 100 000 persons decreased from 703.0 to 631.8, resulting in an average annual decrease of 2.0%. After adjusting for age, the age-standardised incidence of chronic kidney disease decreased by an average of 3.7% annually (Figure 1).

The source the publication itself gives is a journal paper: Yue NC, Ho SC, Mak JKL et al., "Prevalence and incidence of chronic kidney diseases in Hong Kong: A 12-year territory-wide retrospective cohort study", Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific 2025;64:101726.

In one line: 405 833 is the number of existing cases (prevalent cases in that year on the study's definition), 40 723 is the number of new cases (new in that year); one is rising and the other falling.

⚠️ The rise and the fall have to be given together; you cannot report only one of them. Prevalence rose by an average of 6.7% a year; over the same period new cases fell from 41 684 to 40 723, an incidence falling by 2.0% a year, and by 3.7% a year after age adjustment. The publication's own wording is "In contrast". Any account that turns 40 723 into "more and more new cases" says the opposite of what the publication says.

⚠️ The year is 2021, not "now". The publication itself was issued in March 2026, but the year of these two figures is 2021.

How did the study identify cases? The Methods and Table 2 of Yue et al. (2025) identify adult cases from serum creatinine and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio records in the Hospital Authority's CDARS, with the main analysis using abnormal eGFR and/or UACR records more than 90 days apart. 405 833 is the number of prevalent cases in 2021 identified on the study's definition. It is not a household census, and it does not mean that 405 833 people were newly diagnosed that year. The study computes prevalence against the adult mid-year population; the 6.7% is the average annual change in the prevalence rate, not the percentage by which the number of prevalent cases rises each year. the original study (this site's summary)

Who most needs to know: people worried by a headline saying "over 400,000 people in Hong Kong have kidney disease". That is a count of prevalent cases identified from records by a study, not the number of people on dialysis — which is the distinction the next section is about.

Do all 400,000 need dialysis?

No, and the gap is very large. The update report of the Hong Kong Renal Registry, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal on 5 August 2024, states that as at 31 December 2022 there were 11 115 renal replacement therapy patients in the registry.

⚠️ This registry is not a territory-wide roll, and who it takes in has to be set out first. The introduction to the same report:

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) provides >90% of renal replacement services for kidney failure with replacement therapy (KFRT) [previously termed end-stage renal failure] patients in Hong Kong.1 The HA Renal Registry, established in April 1995,1 is an online computerised registry system developed by the HA Central Renal Committee to capture data regarding all KFRT patients with treatment provided by the HA.

That is to say: the figure of 11 115 is the number registered within the Hospital Authority's service, not a territory-wide number; the report states of itself that the Hospital Authority covers more than 90% of the service, and does not claim to cover all of it.

The number on the register:

As of 31 December 2022, there were 11 115 patients registered in the Renal Registry, representing a prevalence of 1492 pmp. Among these patients, 5148 (46.3%) were receiving PD, 2452 (22.1%) were receiving HD, and 3515 (31.6%) had a functioning graft kidney.

That is: as at 31 December 2022 there were 11 115 patients in the registry, of whom 5 148 were on peritoneal dialysis (PD), 2 452 on haemodialysis (HD), and 3 515 had a functioning graft kidney.

⚠️ 405 833 and 11 115 cannot be divided into one another, for four reasons, all of them in the text already quoted above.

  1. Different years. 405 833 is for 2021; 11 115 is as at 31 December 2022.
  2. Different age ranges. The self-printed title of the figure on page 4 of the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch is "Figure 1: Incidence of chronic kidney disease among people aged 18 or above in Hong Kong" — that is, an adult figure; whereas the Renal Registry report defines its coverage as all KFRT patients with treatment provided by the Hospital Authority, and does not restrict that passage to people aged 18 or above. The two sources do not provide consistent age strata, and cannot be treated as the same population.
  3. Different population bases. 405 833 corresponds to the prevalence of 6 296.4 per 100 000 printed in the same paragraph of the publication, implying a population base of about 6.45 million; 11 115 corresponds to the 1 492 per million population printed in the report, implying a population base of about 7.45 million.
  4. Different types of source. One is a count of prevalent cases identified from records by a journal cohort study; the other is an administrative register within the Hospital Authority's service.

So this article will not write "N times as many". What can be said is: the number of chronic kidney disease cases identified by the study runs into the hundreds of thousands (405 833 in 2021, aged 18 and above), while the number registered for renal replacement therapy is eleven thousand-odd (11 115 as at 31 December 2022, within the Hospital Authority's service). The two figures are not the same people, and they are not a ratio.

⚠️ The 5 148 / 2 452 / 3 515 breakdown has a cut-off date of 31 December 2022. None of the sources quoted in this article contains an updated breakdown of dialysis modality in Hong Kong; this article does not treat this set of figures as current.

Percentages in the same report have to be read with their denominators. The paragraph on the total on the register gives 5 148 / 2 452 / 3 515, totalling 11 115, corresponding to 46.3% / 22.1% / 31.6%. Another passage of the report writes 5 148 as 48.2%, which does not correspond to a denominator of 11 115; and there is a separate figure of 1 866 for patients receiving haemodialysis services provided by the Hospital Authority only, which is a different scope again. This article keeps the wording of the paragraph on the total and does not substitute the other passage's percentage for it.

Who most needs to know: people whose family member has just been told their kidney function is declining and who fear dialysis is imminent. This section is about orders of magnitude in numbers of people, not about anyone's individual course.

Why do so many people in Hong Kong do "abdominal" rather than "blood" dialysis?

Because Hong Kong has had a peritoneal-dialysis-first policy since 1985. The text of the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report:

Hong Kong has had a PD-first policy since 1985.4 All new patients requiring dialysis therapy receive PD unless they have medical contraindications to such treatment.

That is: Hong Kong has had a peritoneal-dialysis-first policy since 1985, and all new patients requiring dialysis therapy receive peritoneal dialysis unless they have medical contraindications to it.

The other side of that policy is stated in reverse on the Hospital Authority's SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure: in listing the places where haemodialysis is provided, that page annotates "Renal Units of the Hospital Authority" with "(for those who are not suitable for peritoneal dialysis)".

It shows in the numbers: the same registry report states that of the 1 471 new renal replacement therapy patients in 2022, 82.3% (n=1211) received peritoneal dialysis, 17.0% (n=250) received haemodialysis, and 0.7% (n=10) underwent kidney transplantation.

⚠️ But the people who wrote that report propose, on the next page (page 335 of the journal; the sentence quoted above is on page 334), changing that policy. The discussion section of the same report:

It may be time to explore the feasibility of modifying the PD-first policy to a home-dialysis–first policy with further expansion of home HD services for suitable patients, allowing patients to maintain greater autonomy and freedom when selecting their dialysis modality

That is: it may be time to explore the feasibility of changing the peritoneal-dialysis-first policy to a home-dialysis-first policy, with further expansion of home haemodialysis services for suitable patients, giving patients greater autonomy in choosing their dialysis modality. The same passage also states that home haemodialysis patients make up about 3% of all dialysis patients.

⚠️ This is a recommendation in a journal commentary, not an announced change of policy. The article was written by Hospital Authority renal physicians, its corresponding author is in the Department of Medicine of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and it acknowledges the Renal Registry steering group of the Hospital Authority Central Renal Committee; but it is a COMMENTARY in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, not a Hospital Authority policy announcement. None of the Hospital Authority web pages quoted in this article sets out the policy name "PD-first" in the Hospital Authority's own institutional voice.

Who most needs to know: patients and families who wonder why the doctor talks about "abdominal" dialysis from the outset. ⚠️ This article does not recommend any form of dialysis and does not compare which form is better. The text quoted above says: unless there are medical contraindications; the judgement is made by healthcare staff.

What does dialysis actually involve?

Among the sources quoted in this article, the Hospital Authority's SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure is the only official page that describes the dialysis process step by step. Everything below is quoted from that page as printed.

First, the premise, as stated on the same page:

A patient cannot remove the accumulated waste products and excess water in the body when reaching end-stage of renal failure (only 10% to 15% capacity of kidney function left). Some form of kidney replacement treatment is required to survive, otherwise it may be fatal.

Haemodialysis (known as "cleansing of blood"), as that page prints it:

Hemodialysis - known as "cleansing of blood", is making use of a dialyser (artificial kidney) to remove excess water, electrolytes and the waste products from the blood. Blood is taken off the patient's body via a vascular access such as arteriovenous fistula (a connection made between an artery and a vein at the forearm) or a venous catheter inserted into a main blood vessel in the neck. The blood is circulated by a dialysis machine at around 200cc/min, passing through the artificial kidney to filter off the waste products and the excess fluid. The "cleansed" blood is then return to the patient. A patient may need 2 to 3 haemodialysis treatment per week and each treatment takes 4 to 6 hours. Hemodialysis can be performed at a dialysis centre or at home (in the evening) for those who are able to do so.

Peritoneal dialysis (known as "cleansing the abdomen"), on the same page:

A peritoneal dialysis catheter is implanted into the patient's abdomen as a channel where the dialysis fluid can pass in and out. The infused dialysis fluid allow waste product to be diffused out from the body into the dialysis fluid and to remove the excess water from the body.

The page then divides home peritoneal dialysis into two types. Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD): "About 90% of patients in Hong Kong is making use of this method." The method is that "The dialysis fluid is instilled into the abdomen through an implanted catheter and the dialysis fluid is allowed to dwell inside the abdomen for 4 to 10 hours. During this time, the waste products diffuse into dialysis fluid. The dialysis fluid is then drained out from the body (with the waste product) after 4-10 hours and a new bag of dialysis fluid is then instilled into the abdomen again. This process is repeated 3-4 times per day." Automated Peritoneal Dialysis: "The dialysis treatment is performed during sleep overnight by connecting up to an automated peritoneal dialysis machine before going to bed every night. The machine will automatically exchange the dialysis fluid every hour or so through out the night (for 10 to 12 hours)."

⚠️ That SmartPatient "about 90%" prints no year, and another source quoted in this article prints a very different figure for the same thing. The SmartPatient page prints no update date, and some figures within it are annotated as 2016. The text of the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report:

Beginning in 2020, the number of patients receiving automated PD therapy also substantially increased. In 2022, 1330 patients received automated PD, constituting 25.8% of all PD patients.

That is: from 2020 the number of patients on automated peritoneal dialysis rose substantially; in 2022, 1 330 patients received automated peritoneal dialysis, 25.8% of all peritoneal dialysis patients.

The two pieces of material have different years and different context: SmartPatient says about 90% of peritoneal dialysis patients use continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis; the registry report says that in 2022, 25.8% of peritoneal dialysis patients used automated peritoneal dialysis. None of the sources quoted in this article explains the gap, and this article does not combine the two or treat either as the current figure.

⚠️ That page sets out advantages and disadvantages for each, which this article quotes without adding a judgement. Haemodialysis: "Advantages: quick, effective, only 2 to 3 treatments per week, an intermittent therapy." "Disadvantages: needs to go to dialysis center for the treatment, the treatment is only intermittently and is costly." Peritoneal dialysis (CAPD): "Advantages: removing waste product and excess water continuously, less burden on the heart and the patient can have normal activity during the dialysis process." "Disadvantages: risk of peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum) from the fluid exchange, but this complication is low if the dialysis process is performed carefully."

⚠️ On complications, this article gives only the figures those two sources print. The Hong Kong Renal Registry update report states that the peritonitis rate among patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis improved from 0.55 episode per patient-year in 1999 to 0.27 episode per patient-year in 2022, and that for automated peritoneal dialysis it was 0.23. Beyond that, this article quotes no other complication rate.

Who most needs to know: people who want to know what daily life is like once dialysis begins. ⚠️ The two passages above are descriptions of procedures, not advice on choosing. The same SmartPatient page also states that chronic renal failure "cannot be cured, thus the goal of treatment is to slow down the progress of failure, reduce complications and control the symptoms".

How many deaths a year does chronic kidney disease cause? Is the "sixth leading cause of death" chronic kidney disease?

No — that sixth-ranked category is broader than chronic kidney disease. This is an easy place to misread, and the parts have to be separated.

First, the category includes acute renal failure. The sixth item in the Centre for Health Protection's table "Number of registered deaths by leading cause of death, 2001 - 2025" is:

  1. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (ICD-10: N00-N07, N17-N19, N25-N27)

The figures that table prints: 1 756 in 2023, 1 745 in 2024, 1 763 in 2025. ⚠️ The heading of the whole 2025 column carries a "#", and the table note reads "# Provisional figures." The table also prints its own ranking basis: "(Ranking according to the number of registered deaths in 2025)".

Second, the Centre for Health Protection itself breaks the figure down. The March 2026 issue of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch states:

In 2024, nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis are collectively ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in Hong Kong with 1 744 registered deaths. Among them, 1 226 (70.3%) were due to chronic kidney disease with a crude death rate of 16.3 per 100 000 population.

In one line: of the registered deaths in this cause-of-death group in 2024, around seven in ten (1 226) were due to chronic kidney disease. This article has therefore never written a sentence of the form "1 763 people died of chronic kidney disease".

Third, two Centre for Health Protection publications print two different figures for the same year. The Centre's statistics table prints 1 745 for 2024; the Centre's March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch prints 1 744 for 2024. ⚠️ Neither of those two documents (including all the notes below the statistics table, and that paragraph of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch together with the sources it lists) explains the difference of one. This article does not treat the two figures as reconciled. The 70.3% and the 1 226 are computed against 1 744, so this article uses 1 744 when quoting those two items.

Fourth, the category is written differently on different pages. In the Traditional Chinese, the statistics table prints 腎炎、腎變病綜合症和腎變病 while Non-Communicable Diseases Watch prints 腎炎、腎病綜合症及腎病變; in the official English both print "Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis". This article quotes each page as it writes it and does not harmonise them.

There is also a figure running the other way that has to be given: the same paragraph of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch states that "the aged-standardised death rate due to chronic kidney disease dropped from 8.5 per 100 000 standard population in 2004 to 5.5 per 100 000 standard population in 2024".

⚠️ There is a further set of death figures on a completely different basis, which cannot be added to the above — and the key qualifier sits in the same sentence as the figure. The Hong Kong Renal Registry update report is talking about mortality among renal replacement therapy patients:

The crude mortality rate among KFRT patients in Hong Kong remained stable at approximately 100 deaths per 1000 patient-years from 2012 to 2021 (online supplementary Fig 2). In 2022, possibly due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, there was an increase in the crude annual mortality rate to 147.9 deaths per 1000 patient-years. The annual mortality rate increased with increasing age for all KFRT treatment modalities. The highest rate was observed among patients aged ≥75 years: >300 deaths per 1000 patient-years for both PD and HD patients. Overall, transplant recipients had better survival than PD or HD patients. Even among patients aged ≥75 years, those receiving PD had a relative mortality risk 2.7-fold higher than the risk for transplant recipients.

That is: the crude mortality rate among renal replacement therapy patients in Hong Kong stayed at approximately 100 deaths per 1 000 patient-years from 2012 to 2021; in 2022 it rose to 147.9 deaths per 1 000 patient-years, and the explanation the report offers for the rise is the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. The annual mortality rate rises with age for every modality; the highest group is patients aged 75 and above — over 300 deaths per 1 000 patient-years for both peritoneal dialysis and haemodialysis patients. Overall, transplant recipients had better survival than peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis patients; even among patients aged 75 and above, those on peritoneal dialysis had a relative mortality risk 2.7 times that of transplant recipients.

⚠️ So 147.9 is not a long-run level but a single year's figure for 2022, for which the report itself offers the pandemic as a possible explanation. The ten-year baseline is approximately 100. ⚠️ But both the approximately 100 and the 147.9 are crude rates across all ages, and cannot be taken as the level among older patients. The same passage states immediately afterwards that the annual mortality rate rises with age, and that among patients aged 75 and above both peritoneal dialysis and haemodialysis exceed 300 deaths per 1 000 patient-years. That crude rate for older patients cannot be replaced by the all-age average. ⚠️ The last two sentences of the same passage also have to be read together: the report states that transplant recipients had better survival overall, which this article quotes as printed; it does not mean that anyone can choose, and whether a transplant is possible is determined by clinical and waiting list arrangements. Only the next paragraph deals with causes of death: the most common is infection (the report states that the 46.0% is a 2022 figure), followed by cardiovascular disease (26.2%) and cerebrovascular disease (4.1%) — the report does not annotate the latter two percentages with years of their own, and this article does not supply them. That set of figures is about how many renal replacement therapy patients die, and the figures above are about how many registered deaths are attributed to kidney disease; they are two entirely different sets of statistics, and this article does not compare or merge them.

Who most needs to know: people who see "kidney disease is the sixth leading cause of death" and want to know what it actually means. The accurate statement is: nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis taken together rank sixth among registered causes of death; and for chronic kidney disease itself the figure the Centre for Health Protection gives for 2024 is 1 226.

How long is the wait for a kidney transplant?

None of the twelve local statistical and service documents below sets out a waiting time for kidney transplantation. That is a gap within this range of material; it does not mean that other official material does not exist.

⚠️ The 12 documents listed under "Local statistics and service material" at the end of this article (set out one by one under "Sources" below: 11 government or public body documents, plus the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal) — including the Department of Health / Hospital Authority organ donation statistics page, the 2024 update report of the Hong Kong Renal Registry, the March 2026 issue of Non-Communicable Diseases Watch, the Legislative Council written reply of 27 May 2026, and the Hospital Authority SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure — do not print a median, a mean or any other form of waiting time for kidney transplantation. That does not mean no official source has ever published one; it means only that the pages quoted here do not. Nor will this article work out a figure of its own.

Numbers waiting do exist, in several versions with different dates, which must not be used interchangeably:

Numbers of people waiting for kidney transplantation in Hong Kong, by source version. Sources and their document dates are given in each row. Last updated: 2026-09-08.
FigureAs atWhat it countsSource (document date / Last updated)
2 462
(provisional figures)		2026-06-30Kidney donation "number of patients waiting"Department of Health / Hospital Authority, "Organ Donation - Statistics" (page revision date 30-06-2026):
https://www.organdonation.gov.hk/en/statistics.html (Last updated: 2026-09-08)
2 5712025-12-31"patients with advanced kidney disease waiting for a kidney transplant"
(the first half of the same sentence in that publication reads "In the past 5 years, about 300 kidneys were donated", without stating which five years)		Centre for Health Protection, Non-Communicable Diseases Watch, March 2026 (March 2026):
https://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/ncd_watch_mar_2026_en.pdf (Last updated: 2026-09-08)
>2 000The text prints no cut-off date
(the sentence is in the report's discussion section and uses the word "Currently", not tied to the report's data cut-off of 2022-12-31; publication date 2024-08-05)		kidney transplant waiting listHong Kong Renal Registry update report, Hong Kong Med J 2024;30:332-6 (2024-08-05):
https://www.hkmj.org/system/files/hkmj2411504.pdf (Last updated: 2026-09-08)

⚠️ The official page carrying the 2 462 is a live table that is overwritten, with no archive of past versions on the page. Look at the same page at different times and you will see different figures and different cut-off dates, and the old figures cannot be found again on that page.

⚠️ There is also a "more than three thousand" figure, which is not a kidney figure. In the Legislative Council written reply of 27 May 2026, the sentence "according to the statistics from the Hospital Authority, as at March 31, 2026, there were over 3 000 patients awaiting organ transplants" appears in the Member's question, and covers all organs taken together; the Government's reply does not restate or adopt that figure. This article does not treat it as a kidney waiting list figure.

Supply and demand are put in a single sentence by the Centre for Health Protection itself. The text on page 6 of the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch:

Yet, demand far exceeds supply. In the past 5 years, about 300 kidneys were donated. As at 31 December 2025, there were 2 571 patients with advanced kidney disease waiting for a kidney transplant34.

⚠️ The two halves of that sentence have to be read together. The publication does not state which five years "the past 5 years" are, and prints no year-by-year figures; this article does not break the "about 300" into annual figures, and does not combine it with the more recent date attaching to the 2 462 in the table above.

If you want the year-by-year figures, the numbers of kidney donations (deceased donor / living donor) printed on the organ donation statistics page itself are: 57 / 15 in 2021, 45 / 11 in 2022, 41 / 11 in 2023, 41 / 18 in 2024 and 58 / 29 in 2025. ⚠️ These five rows are copied row by row from that table. They are not an average, and they are not a waiting time; this article does not pick one year to stand for the rest, and does not convert numbers of people divided by numbers of donations into a period of years.

Who most needs to know: people on the list, or whose family member is. ⚠️ This article is neither able nor equipped to tell you how long you will wait.

"Since 1969, 3,500 people in Hong Kong have had a kidney transplant" — is that right?

3 515 is the number of people on the register with a functioning graft kidney at the end of 2022, not a cumulative total of operations or recipients over the years.

⚠️ First, where that sentence comes from: it is not street talk, it is printed by the Centre for Health Protection itself. Page 6 of the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch — the same page from which this article takes the waiting figure of 2 571 — reads:

Since Hong Kong's first successful transplant in 1969, over 3 500 renal patients have received functioning grafts as at 31 December 2022— 3 058 transplants from brain-dead donors and 457 from healthy living donors15.

The footnote number on that sentence is 15, that is, the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report quoted below. In the registry report, the same 3 058 and 457 are a breakdown of the number of people who still had a functioning graft kidney on 31 December 2022, not a cumulative count of operations since 1969. On the basis of the Renal Registry report it cites, the statistical definition of this set of figures is patients alive on that date with a functioning graft kidney, and it cannot be restated as a cumulative total of transplants performed over the years.

The text of the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report:

In 2022, the number of patients with a functioning graft kidney continued to decline for the fourth consecutive year since 2019. As of 31 December 2022, there were 3515 patients with a functioning graft kidney (3058 deceased donor transplants and 457 living donor transplants), representing a prevalence of 472 pmp; this rate constituted a 4.3% decrease compared with 2021.

That is: the passage describes 2022 as the fourth consecutive year of decline; as at 31 December 2022 there were 3 515 people with a functioning graft kidney (3 058 of them from deceased donors and 457 from living donors), a prevalence of 472 per million population, a rate 4.3% lower than in 2021.

⚠️ The 4.3% is the fall in the rate per million population, not the fall in the head count. Another page of the same report states that this 4.3% is a fall from 493.4 per million population in 2021 to 471.1 in 2022; the report prints no percentage change for the 3 515 people against the 2021 head count, and this article does not supply one. ⚠️ The two endpoints the report itself prints do not agree with the 4.3% it prints: 493.4 falling to 471.1 is a fall of 4.5% (this site's calculation). The following page of the same report (page 334) prints 472 per million population for the same year, and 493.4 falling to 472 gives about 4.3%. This article quotes the figures the report prints, does not decide on the report's behalf which rate is correct, and will not rewrite the 4.3% it quotes as 4.5%. As for the 2019 peak, that comes from another sentence in the same section of the report: the number of patients with a functioning graft kidney rose from 956 in 1995 to 3 779 in 2019 — that sentence is not within the passage quoted above.

The accurate statement: as at 31 December 2022, there were 3 515 people in the Hospital Authority Renal Registry living with a functioning graft kidney, fewer than the 3 779 the report gives for 2019. The report describes the position both as the "fourth consecutive year since 2019" of decline and, elsewhere, as having peaked in 2019; the wording is not entirely consistent, and this article does not draw a "four consecutive years of decline" conclusion from it. The same report also states that of those 3 515 people, only 1 198 (34.1%) had their operation in Hong Kong.

On survival after transplantation, the same report has Hong Kong's own figures: for kidney transplant surgeries performed in Hong Kong between 2010 and 2019, the death-censored graft survival rates for living donor transplants were 0.97 at 1 year and 0.94 at 5 years, and for deceased donor transplants 0.97 at 1 year and 0.89 at 5 years. ⚠️ The "death-censored" qualifier has to be given with them: patients who die while carrying a functioning graft kidney have their observation ended at death (they are censored), so death is not treated as graft failure; it does not mean that all their earlier follow-up is removed from the denominator, and it is not patient survival. Note too that this set of figures covers only operations performed in Hong Kong between 2010 and 2019.

⚠️ There is another, older set of survival figures on a different basis, which this article has not mixed with the above. The Hospital Authority's SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure carries a set of patient survival and graft survival rates, as patient information material. ⚠️ That page prints no year for this set of survival rates — the two places where it does print a year belong to two different sections: the distribution of causes in "What are the causes of Chronic Renal Failure?" is annotated as 2016, and the kidney transplant part of "What are the treatments for Chronic Renal Failure?" states "In 2016, 78 people underwent kidney transplant in Hong Kong"; the survival figures sit in the same section as that 78, but carry no year themselves, and this article does not push that year across to the survival figures. The same passage of that page also states that "There are about 2000 patients waiting for kidney transplant", with no cut-off date; the table above sets out the more recent, dated figures.

On the organ donation register, the Legislative Council written reply of 27 May 2026 prints cumulative total registrations in the Centralised Organ Donation Register as at 31 December in 2023, 2024 and 2025 of 367 199, 391 187 and 414 371 respectively; the same reply states that "As at April 30, 2026, the number of registrations in the CODR exceeded 418 000".

⚠️ The most important sentence is in the same reply: "The record on the CODR is merely an expression of wish and does not bear any legal effect or binding force." The same reply also states: "Under the existing mechanism, even if a deceased person has indicated his/her wish to donate organs after death, organ donation co-ordinators would seek the consent of the family members of the deceased. Should there be any objection from the family members of the deceased, the relevant transplant surgery will not be performed." — that is, having registered, the family will still be asked, and if the family objects the surgery will not go ahead.

How to register, according to the Department of Health's "Know More about Centralised Organ Donation Register" page (page revision date 05-06-2026): online (www.codr.gov.hk, with the auto form-filling function of "iAM Smart"), by post, by fax on 2127 4926, or in person with your Hong Kong Identity Card at the register's office or at an organ donation promotional booth. The same page states that "In general, for applications submitted online, the registration process will be completed in a shorter time", and that for applications in person, by post or by fax "you will receive a notification within 14 days after submission of your application"; the enquiry telephone number is 2961 8441. The same page also states that after successful registration "you do not need to carry the organ donation card (if any) with you".

How much does dialysis cost in the public system? Does it count towards the $10,000 cap?

First, what drives the charges: the Hospital Authority's list of charges is set out in a Gazette notice made under section 18 of the Hospital Authority Ordinance (Cap. 113). The current version is Gazette Notice No. 6792, signed by the Chairman of the Hospital Authority on 31 October 2025, with the charges taking effect "as from 1 January 2026".

Hospital Authority charge items relating to nephrology and dialysis. Source: "G.N. 6792 HOSPITAL AUTHORITY, Hospital Authority Ordinance (Chapter 113), Sections 18(1) and 18(2), List of Charges", signing date 2025-10-31, effective date 2026-01-01: https://www.ha.org.hk/haho/ho/cc/Gazette_en.pdf (Last updated: 2026-09-08). The Shared Dialysis Programme co-payment comes separately from the Hospital Authority's patient notice of 2025-12-11; the source is given in the table.
ItemWho it applies toCharge
"For each attendance for day procedure and treatment at a Clinical Oncology clinic or Renal clinic/centre"Eligible Persons$250
(from 2026-01-01)
"For patients attending day procedure and treatment session for Haemodialysis at a Renal clinic/centre or other ambulatory facility" — Chronic / Acute, per attendanceNon-eligible Persons$3,000 / $6,000
(the charges do not cover charges for prescriptions, radiology, pathology and diagnostic/therapeutic procedures)
Appendix II, List of Non-Subsidised Charges: Haemodialysis (Chronic / Acute); Automated peritoneal dialysis (for each treatment session)Non-subsidised services$3,290 / $6,580; $4,870
Prescriptions, radiology and pathology services will be charged separately
Shared Dialysis Programme community haemodialysis centre co-payment, per attendanceExisting programme patients and newly participating patients; medical fee waiving is handled separately under the applicable mechanism$250 (from 2026-01-01)
Source: Hospital Authority Haemodialysis Public-Private Partnership Programme Office, "New Co-payment Arrangements for Haemodialysis Public-Private Partnership Programme", 2025-12-11, page 1: Hospital Authority patient notice (Last updated: 2026-09-08)

⚠️ In the Eligible Persons list of charges in Gazette Notice No. 6792, there is no single item called "dialysis". The first row above is the day procedure and treatment charge for a renal clinic/centre; it does not distinguish haemodialysis from peritoneal dialysis, and there is no separate item for peritoneal dialysis fluid. The table also gives the non-subsidised charge per session for automated peritoneal dialysis, from which no inference can be drawn about an Eligible Person's annual bill for peritoneal dialysis at home; nor does this article estimate anyone's annual cost by multiplying "$250 × the number of sessions in a year".

Does it count towards the $10,000 cap? Q2 of section 8 of the Hospital Authority's "Public Healthcare Fees and Charges Reform - FAQ" sets out the public healthcare service charges covered by the "Annual Spending Cap", which include "Day hospital / day procedure", and names among them:

Public-Private Partnership Programmes (PPP), which are set at same level of the fees and charges for the equivalent services provided by HA, including General Outpatient Clinic PPP, Project on Enhancing Radiological Investigation Services through Collaboration with the Private Sector and Haemodialysis PPP, etc.

The "Haemodialysis PPP" is the haemodialysis public-private partnership programme in the last row of the table above. The same Q2 also states that "charges for self-financed drugs and medical devices are excluded".

The Hospital Authority's notice of 11 December 2025, "New Co-payment Arrangements for Haemodialysis Public-Private Partnership Programme", also states directly that from 1 January 2026 the fees and charges payable by a patient under that programme count towards the eligible medical fees and charges of the Annual Spending Cap. This arrangement is limited to the programme and the eligible fees described, and does not mean that all self-financed dialysis-related spending is covered. (this site's summary)

The most important point: it is not automatic. Q5 of the same FAQ:

The eligibility for the Annual Spending Cap is not granted automatically. Patients must submit an application via HA Go or at any hospital's shroff office once their cumulative valid annual spending reached $10,000.

⚠️ But "must submit" does not mean the patient has to do it in person. Q10 of the same FAQ:

For HA Go users, registered carer can complete the online application if the patient meets the eligibility criteria. In addition, other persons may also submit an application on behalf of the patient.

Q7 of the same FAQ: "The general Annual Spending Cap application processing time is approximately 14 calendar days." The same Q7 continues immediately: "Where more time is required to process the application, an interim reply will be sent to the patient via HA Go if the application is submitted through HA Go, or by post if submitted at hospitals' shroff offices." ⚠️ That is, the 14 days is "general", not a limit. The conditions set out in Q1 include: being an Eligible Person throughout the entire period of accumulating eligible medical fees and charges and during the application process; having no outstanding eligible medical fees; and eligible fees and charges counting only those billed between 1 January and 31 December of each year and fully paid upon submission of the application, with the cumulative amount for the year reaching or exceeding $10,000. Q8 states that any payment made beyond the $10,000 prior to approval will be carried over to subsequent years to cover eligible medical fees and charges without expiration date, and will be included in the cumulative annual spending of that year; the same answer also allows, under exceptional circumstances (for example deceased patients), for applicants to inform the hospital of a refund arrangement at the time of application. Q5 further explains that after approval the patient must still declare eligibility at the time of registration for medical services, with system verification, and must remain an Eligible Person. (this site's summary)

⚠️ There is another "$10,000" in the Gazette that has nothing to do with the Annual Spending Cap. Paragraph 1(c)(ii) of Gazette Notice No. 6792 provides for an additional administrative charge on fees outstanding on the expiry of 90 days from the date of issuance of a bill, "subject to a maximum additional administrative charge of $10,000 for each such bill". Search the PDF for "10,000" and this is very likely the first thing you will hit.

What patients still have to pay, and what the same reply says immediately afterwards. The written reply to a Legislative Council question of 8 May 2019, parts (2) and (3); the three sentences run together, and this article quotes them in the order printed:

In general, patients receiving renal replacement therapy services are only required to additionally pay for treatment-related consumable items, including sterile supplies. The expenditure involved is about $1,000 to $3,000 per month. Medical social workers will, as far as possible, help needy and eligible patients to apply for financial assistance provided by the Social Welfare Department or other charitable funds to purchase the necessary consumable items. There are also charitable organisations subsidising patients in using the medical devices for renal replacement therapy at home.

⚠️ The middle sentence cannot be left out. Having given the $1,000 to $3,000 a month, the reply states immediately that medical social workers will help apply for financial assistance from the Social Welfare Department or other charitable funds, directed at exactly these consumables, and that there are also charitable organisations subsidising home dialysis medical devices. The same reply also states that those consumables are "not covered by the above CCF medical assistance programmes" — that is, that particular door is shut, but it does not mean there is no other route. ⚠️ All of the above is the position as at 8 May 2019, not the current arrangement; the sources quoted in this article contain no updated version, and this article makes no statement about anyone's eligibility.

Who most needs to know: patients and families whose medical costs this year have already passed $10,000 but who have not applied. ⚠️ This article does not judge anyone's eligibility and does not do anyone's arithmetic; the route of application and the eligibility criteria are as published by the Hospital Authority.

Can it be caught earlier? Does Hong Kong screen for kidney disease?

Among the sources quoted in this article there is no population screening programme directed at chronic kidney disease. Four things have to be kept carefully apart in this section.

One: tests of kidney function are in the investigation list of the Chronic Disease Co-Care Scheme. That list (version as at 26 Jan 2026) sets out:

  • "Renal Function Test with estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (RFT with eGFR) 腎臟功能測試及估計腎小球濾過率", an individual item co-payment of $30; and it is included in Package 1 (Basic Care Package, $80), Package 2 (Hypertension, $110), Package 3 (Diabetes Mellitus, $130) and others.
  • "Spot urine Albumin: Creatinine Ratio (ACR) 單次小便白蛋白／肌酐比值", an individual item co-payment of $30.

Page 1 of that list also separates two phases: for the dyslipidaemia, prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension screening phase above, a one-off co-payment fee of $120 or less covers all medical consultation visits, investigation services, diagnosis and selection of a management plan, with no separate package co-payment required; only during the treatment phase does the co-payment fee for investigation services apply as per the list of packages. (this site's summary)

⚠️ These figures are the "co-payment" for participants in the Chronic Disease Co-Care Scheme. They are not the price anyone pays for the same test privately, and they are not items in the Hospital Authority's list of charges. The column heading in that list is printed on two lines, English above and Chinese below: "Co-Payment (HK$)" and "共付額 (港幣$)"; who it applies to is dealt with in point two below.

⚠️ The coverage of the two is not the same. According to that list, the diabetes mellitus package (Package 3) includes both eGFR and urine ACR; the hypertension package (Package 2) includes eGFR and urine PCR (protein/creatinine ratio), not ACR; and the dyslipidaemia / diabetes screening packages (Packages 8 and 9) include neither — on the same list, Package 8 is HbA1c plus a full lipid profile and Package 9 is fasting glucose plus a full lipid profile, and neither includes eGFR or urine ACR.

⚠️ Two: the target conditions of the scheme do not include kidney disease. Pages 1, 3 and 5 of that list each print an applicability heading (pages 2, 4 and 6 are continuation pages and do not print the heading): page 1 prints "For Dyslipidaemia/ Pre-DM (HbA1c 6-6.4% / FPG 6.1-6.9 mmoI/L) / DM / HT:", page 3 prints "For Chronic Hepatitis B:", and page 5 prints a longer heading covering two condition groups: "For Treatment Phase of Dyslipidaemia/ Pre-DM / DM / HT or Treatment Phase of Chronic Hepatitis B:" — that is, the item-by-item list on page 5 also serves chronic hepatitis B, and is not a repeat of the heading on page 1. None of the six pages of the list names chronic kidney disease as a target condition. In other words, these two renal investigations are reached through the diabetes or hypertension door; they are not a standalone kidney disease screen.

⚠️ Three: the Centre for Health Protection's own prevention advice does not tell people to have their kidneys tested. Page 5 of the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch sets out eight essential steps (keep blood glucose in check, keep blood pressure in check, maintain an optimal body weight, keep blood lipids in check, eat a balanced diet with proper hydration, be physically active, do not smoke, ensure adequate sleep). Three of them mention regular testing: "Adults aged 45 or above are recommended to have blood glucose checked regularly", "Adults aged 18 or above are recommended to have their blood pressure checked regularly", and "Adults aged 50–75 are recommended to screen for hyperlipidaemia regularly" (all three passages also state in the same paragraph that "More frequent testing is recommended when cardiovascular risk factors are present" / "More frequent checking is recommended when cardiovascular risk factors are present"). None of those eight mentions eGFR, urine albumin or any kidney-specific test, and that issue of the publication does not recommend population screening for chronic kidney disease.

⚠️ Four: but the Hospital Authority's SmartPatient page, on the same subject, does state that testing urine can detect kidney disease early. The SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure quoted repeatedly above states, under "How to prevent Chronic Renal Failure?":

Regular body check up, including testing the urine can discover kidney diseases in the early stage. If the patient has hematuria (blood in urine) or albuminuria (albumin in urine), he/she should undergo investigation as soon as possible.

That is the text of Hospital Authority patient information material, not advice from this article. The page prints no update date, and does not say how often, arranged by whom, or for whom; this article adds no qualification to that sentence and makes no statement about whether anyone should have that test.

⚠️ The four points above are about what the named documents in this section do and do not say; they are not a statement of fact that "Hong Kong has no kidney disease screening". This article quotes both the Centre for Health Protection's eight essentials, which do not mention kidney tests, and this sentence from SmartPatient, without reconciling them on their behalf.

As for staging. The KDIGO 2024 guideline assesses chronic kidney disease by cause, glomerular filtration rate category (G1-G5) and albuminuria category (A1-A3). The SmartPatient percentage bands below are the wording of older patient information; they cannot be taken as an eGFR staging table, and they cannot be used to decide for yourself when to start dialysis.

Chronic Renal Failure can be divided into the following stages:
Impaired renal function: 51% - 80% of normal kidney function
Renal failure: only 25% - 50% of kidney function
Severe renal failure: only 15% - 25% of kidney function
End-stage renal failure: less than 10-15% of kidney function

This site's delimitation: the SmartPatient "percentage of normal kidney function" cannot be treated directly as KDIGO staging; this article provides no individualised referral or treatment threshold. KDIGO 2024 Practice Point 5.4.1 explains that the decision to start dialysis takes account of symptoms, signs, quality of life, patient preference, kidney function and laboratory results together, and does not rest on a single percentage. (this site's summary)

Who most needs to know: people with diabetes or high blood pressure who want to know whether their follow-up appointments include a kidney test. ⚠️ This article cannot tell you what your particular package tested for; the actual items depend on the scheme you joined and on your doctor's arrangements.

Common questions

  • Are 400,000 people in Hong Kong on dialysis? No. 405 833 is the number of adult chronic kidney disease cases in 2021, cited by the March 2026 issue of the Centre for Health Protection's Non-Communicable Diseases Watch from a territory-wide retrospective cohort study. For the number of people receiving renal replacement therapy (dialysis or a functioning transplant), the 2024 update report of the Hong Kong Renal Registry gives 11 115 as at 31 December 2022, and that report states at the outset that the register captures patients treated by the Hospital Authority, which provides more than 90% of renal replacement services in Hong Kong. The two figures cannot be divided into one another: 405 833 is a count of prevalent cases aged 18 and above identified from records by a study (a prevalence of 6 296.4 per 100 000, implying a population base of about 6.45 million), while 11 115 is a count on a treatment register which the introduction does not restrict to adults (1 492 per million population, implying a population base of about 7.45 million); the years, the age ranges, the population bases and the types of source all differ.
  • Are new cases of kidney disease rising every year? The overall trend in this study is falling incidence, which does not mean there was no year-to-year variation. On the same paragraph of the same publication, the number of existing cases rose from 181 778 to 405 833 (2010 to 2021), with the corresponding prevalence rising by an average of 6.7% a year, but new cases fell over the same period from 41 684 to 40 723, with incidence falling by an average of 2.0% a year, and by 3.7% a year after age adjustment. The publication's own wording is "In contrast".
  • Does the "sixth leading cause of death" mean chronic kidney disease? No. The sixth item in the Centre for Health Protection's statistics table is "Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (ICD-10: N00-N07, N17-N19, N25-N27)", which includes acute renal failure. The same Centre's March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch states that for 2024, of 1 744 registered deaths, 1 226 (70.3%) were due to chronic kidney disease. Separately, the Centre's statistics table prints 1 745 for 2024; the two documents differ by one, and the pages quoted in this article do not explain it. The 2025 column is provisional figures.
  • Roughly how many years is the wait for a kidney transplant? This article has no answer. The 12 documents listed under "Local statistics and service material" at the end of this article (see "Sources"), including the organ donation statistics page and the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report, do not publish any kidney transplant waiting time. What exists are numbers of people: 2 462 (as at 2026-06-30, provisional figures, organ donation statistics page) / 2 571 (as at 2025-12-31, March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch). ⚠️ The publication prints that 2 571 in the same sentence as a supply figure: "In the past 5 years, about 300 kidneys were donated. As at 31 December 2025, there were 2 571 patients with advanced kidney disease waiting for a kidney transplant." The publication does not say which five years "the past 5 years" are, and this article does not convert numbers of people divided by numbers of donations into a period of years.
  • If I register as an organ donor, will my organs definitely be donated? According to the Legislative Council written reply of 27 May 2026: "The record on the CODR is merely an expression of wish and does not bear any legal effect or binding force", and "organ donation co-ordinators would seek the consent of the family members of the deceased. Should there be any objection from the family members of the deceased, the relevant transplant surgery will not be performed." The same reply also states that Hong Kong "has been adopting an 'opt-in' system for cadaveric organ donations".
  • Does the cost of dialysis count towards the $10,000 annual spending cap? Q2 of the Hospital Authority's "Public Healthcare Fees and Charges Reform - FAQ" lists "Day hospital / day procedure" within the scope and names "Haemodialysis PPP"; and Gazette Notice No. 6792 sets the charge for day procedure and treatment at a renal clinic/centre for Eligible Persons at $250 per attendance (from 2026-01-01). But Q5 of the same FAQ states: "The eligibility for the Annual Spending Cap is not granted automatically", and patients must apply via HA Go or at a hospital shroff office. Q10 of the same FAQ states that for HA Go users a registered carer can complete the online application, and that other persons may also submit an application on behalf of the patient. Q7 states that processing takes approximately 14 calendar days "in general", and that where more time is required an interim reply will be sent via HA Go or by post. The Hospital Authority's Shared Dialysis Programme patient notice of 11 December 2025 also states directly that the fees and charges under that programme count towards the eligible medical fees and charges of the Annual Spending Cap; self-financed drugs and medical devices remain excluded as set out in the FAQ.

Related article: 〈Waiting for a public specialist appointment and getting worse — can you ask to be seen earlier?〉

What this article covers

  • This article provides no kidney transplant waiting time. None of the 12 documents listed under "Local statistics and service material" at the end of this article — that is, the 12 listed below under "Local statistics and service material", including the Department of Health / Hospital Authority "Organ Donation - Statistics", the 2024 update report of the Hong Kong Renal Registry, the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch, the Legislative Council written reply of 27 May 2026 and the Hospital Authority SmartPatient page on chronic renal failure — prints a median, a mean or any other form of waiting time. That does not mean no official source has ever published one.
  • This article cites KDIGO 2024 as international background on definition and staging, and does not describe it as a Hong Kong local guideline. It provides no individualised eGFR, referral or treatment threshold.
  • This article does not recommend any form of dialysis, and does not compare peritoneal dialysis and haemodialysis as to which is better. The advantages and disadvantages quoted above are all text set out by the Hospital Authority's SmartPatient page itself.
  • This article makes no statement as to whether kidney transplantation or dialysis is better. The survival comparisons quoted in the mortality section above (that transplant recipients had better survival overall; that among patients aged 75 and above those on peritoneal dialysis had a relative mortality risk 2.7 times that of transplant recipients) are all the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report's own text, quoted as printed, without drawing a conclusion for the reader, and without making any statement about whether or when anyone can or should receive a transplant.
  • This article does not claim that the "PD-first" policy has changed or will change. The home-dialysis-first passage is a recommendation in the discussion section of the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report, a journal commentary, not an announced policy decision. None of the Hospital Authority web pages quoted in this article sets out the policy name "PD-first" in the Hospital Authority's own institutional voice.
  • This article does not write 3 515 up as "the cumulative number of kidney transplants since 1969". It is the number of people alive as at 31 December 2022 with a functioning graft kidney, and it has fallen year by year since 2019. ⚠️ The sentence the Centre for Health Protection itself prints on page 6 of the March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch is "Since Hong Kong's first successful transplant in 1969, over 3 500 renal patients have received functioning grafts as at 31 December 2022", and the footnote it points to is precisely the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report. That sentence carries the cut-off date "as at 31 December 2022"; it is not a cumulative total counted up from 1969, and the opening phrase "Since Hong Kong's first successful transplant in 1969" is not enough to turn the registry report's current head count into a cumulative total. Both documents' text has been quoted above; this article draws no conclusion for either side and does not claim that either document is wrong.
  • This article does not use the incidence figure 187.5. The March 2026 Non-Communicable Diseases Watch writes the 1 471 new cases in 2022 as 187.5 per million population, but the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report it cites prints 197.5 twice within the same section, plus once in a figure label (the figure gives 197.48). The two differ by 10 per million population. This article quotes only the absolute figure of 1 471 cases; where an incidence rate is required, this article uses the registry report's 197.5 and notes that the sources differ.
  • This article quotes the registry report's percentages against the denominators of their own passages. The paragraph on the total gives 5 148 / 2 452 / 3 515 corresponding to 46.3% / 22.1% / 31.6%; the 48.2% in another passage is not used as the proportion 5 148 / 11 115.
  • This article does not treat the 5 148 / 2 452 / 3 515 breakdown as current. Its cut-off date is 31 December 2022; the sources quoted in this article contain no updated version.
  • This article makes no statement about how many people in Hong Kong receive haemodialysis outside the Hospital Authority (in private hospitals or through charitable organisations). The Legislative Council written reply of 8 May 2019 states that, apart from participants of the haemodialysis public-private partnership programme, the authorities "do not have figures on the number of patients receiving HD treatment in private hospitals and charitable organisations"; the twelve documents listed under "Local statistics and service material" set out no more recent figure.
  • This article does not claim that peritoneal dialysis costs the Hospital Authority less. The sources quoted in this article contain no cost comparison between haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in Hong Kong.
  • This article lists no Hospital Authority renal centre by name, number or location, and does not explain referral or booking routes. The sources quoted in this article do not contain that information.
  • This article does not estimate any patient's annual public hospital bill. The Gazette list of charges has no Eligible Persons item for peritoneal dialysis, and this article performs no "$250 per attendance multiplied by the number of sessions" calculation.
  • This article does not use the waiting figure "2,489 (as at March 2025)". Neither that figure nor that cut-off date appears in any of the 12 documents listed under "Local statistics and service material" at the end of this article (see "Sources"). The official page concerned is a live table that is overwritten, with no archive of past versions.
  • This article does not treat "over 3 000 patients awaiting organ transplants", from the Legislative Council question, as a kidney figure. That sentence is in the question rather than the reply, and covers all organs taken together.
  • This article makes no statement about chronic kidney disease in children, about conservative management without dialysis, or about choosing not to have dialysis. The statement above that the Hong Kong Renal Registry, on its own introduction, captures all renal replacement therapy patients treated by the Hospital Authority and that the introduction does not define the register as adults only is a statement about the wording of that introduction; this article infers no number of paediatric patients from it.
  • This article does not divide 405 833 by 11 115, and writes no "N times" ratio. The two differ in year, age range (18 and above / not restricted to adults in the introduction), population base (about 6.45 million / about 7.45 million) and type of source (prevalent cases identified from records by a journal cohort study / an administrative register within the Hospital Authority's service), and none of the sources quoted in this article places the two side by side for comparison.
  • This article does not explain the gap between SmartPatient's "About 90% of patients in Hong Kong is making use of this method" and the Hong Kong Renal Registry update report's 25.8% of peritoneal dialysis patients on automated peritoneal dialysis in 2022, and does not treat either as the current figure. Both passages have been quoted separately above.
  • The Shared Dialysis Programme co-payment given in this article is $250 per attendance from 1 January 2026, on the basis of the Hospital Authority's patient notice of 11 December 2025; medical fee waiving and the Annual Spending Cap each have their own conditions, and a per-attendance charge cannot be multiplied out into anyone's annual bill.
  • This article does not quantify any complication rate other than peritonitis.
  • This article does not compare or recommend any hospital, clinic or doctor.
  • This article does not provide medical advice and cannot assess any individual condition.
  • This is the English edition. The Traditional Chinese edition is the authoritative version of this article. Quotations above are reproduced from the official English text published by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or from the English originals of the journal sources, not translated by this site.

This is health information, not medical advice.

Sources

Definitions and study methods

Current Shared Dialysis Programme co-payment

Local statistics and service material

Official arrangements, charges and statistics may be updated; the announcements of the Department of Health, the Centre for Health Protection and the Hospital Authority prevail. This is health information, not medical advice, and it cannot assess any individual condition. In an emergency, attend the nearest Accident & Emergency Department immediately.