Nine hospitals across the UAE now carry out kidney transplants and five perform liver procedures, with a single facility handling multi-organ transplantation — a network that has helped the country log 1,026 transplants from January 2024 through the end of June 2026.
In a Gulf News report, that total was outlined by Dr. Ali Abdulkarim Al Obaidli, Chairman of the National Committee for Organ Transplantation, who broke the figures down by year: 352 procedures in 2024, 452 in 2025, and 222 more in the first six months of 2026. The most recent batch spanned heart, kidney, liver and additional organ types, he said, speaking to Al Etihad on the margins of the third EHS International Critical Care, Organ Donation and Transplantation Conference in Dubai.
A steep rise in donation from deceased patients drove much of the momentum. According to Dr Al Obaidli, the number of deceased donors climbed from 110 to 149 between 2024 and 2025 — a 35 per cent jump that applies specifically to that year-on-year change, since comparable 2026 growth has not yet been measured against the same window in 2025. Those 149 donors made possible 451 transplants for patients last year, pushing the country to a rate of 13 deceased donors for every million residents. Recipients ranged across kidney, liver, heart and lung cases, along with patients needing more than one organ.
Dr Al Obaidli credited the pace of the program — which he described as among the fastest-expanding of its type — to backing from the government, together with legislation, regulatory frameworks, institutional strength and outreach to the public. Any decision to widen the roster of participating hospitals, he noted, rests with the relevant health authorities. The national committee coordinates closely with the National Centre for Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues, dividing expertise and duties between the two.
Cross-border work has grown as well. He singled out an arrangement with Kuwait, explaining that Kuwaiti patients who once sought treatment in Europe or the United States can now be treated in the UAE. That fits a broader stance the country has taken in favor of tighter coordination between nations, in line with World Health Organization guidance from 2024 urging a more unified global strategy — a position the UAE reaffirmed at a workshop held during the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 2026.
The UAE’s comprehensive health insurance system, Dr Al Obaidli added, now carries provisions built to enable and support donation and transplantation. He framed the program’s purpose as reaching past the treatment of organ failure alone: it is also meant to secure for individuals and the families of donors the right to donate and, in doing so, to save others.
