Donor organs must be distributed automatically through a national system, according to a new regulation scheduled to take effect on September 1.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission published the Regulation on the Procurement and Distribution of Donated Human Organs, which lays out the new guidelines and procedures on the distribution of donor organs, on August 21.

Organs will be obtained by procurement organizations authorized by provincial health authorities, and distribution of these must be done through the China Organ Transplant Response System, according to the new rules.

Recipients waiting on donations will be sorted based on the urgency and nature of their emergency and their compatibility with transplant-ready organs.

China introduced an organ donation system in 2010 and has the world's second largest demand for organ transplants. About 300,000 patients suffer from organ failure each year, but only around 10,000 organ transplant operations are performed annually due to a lack of available organs.