HUMS aims to set up organ transplant centre

KOTA KINABALU (Nov 7): Hospital Universiti Malaysia Sabah (HUMS) aims to set up the first organ transplant facility in Sabah, including for chronic kidney disease patients.

Its director, Professor Madya Dr Malehah Datuk Mohd Noh, said the hospital expects to start operating in December 2025 and provide dialysis services from January 2026, with 40 bays at its haemodialysis unit.

However, despite Sabah currently having 23 hospitals and two health clinics offering dialysis services, she said an organ transplant centre needs to built here, due to long queues for transplant patients referred from elsewhere.

Dr Malehah gave an example of chronic kidney diseases, which at critical stages can require kidney transplants, as she described it as a key option to allow patients to live on in the later phases of the disease.

“At this point in time, we cannot perform kidney transplants in Sabah yet, so patients have to be referred to places like Kuala Lumpur, where the queues are really long.

“Hence, HUMS is very committed to look into the possibility of setting up a transplant centre at the hospital

“However, in Sabah, we are still developing the system and possibility to make this happen.

“Currently, we have established an organ procurement unit within HUMS and sent our staff for relevant training at government hospitals.

“Hopefully one day, with assistance from the Ministry of Health, we can realise the state’s first organ transplant centre,” she said at a function here today.