WUHAN, May 15 (Xinhua) -- China will increase the number of hospitals conducting organ transplants to 300 in the next five years, said medical expert Huang Jiefu, on Sunday.

According to Huang, the number of donation coordinators, whose job is to convince relatives of potential donors and help with the entire process of donation, will double in the same period.

Currently organ transplants are performed in only 169 hospitals, said Huang, head of a national organ donation and transplant committee and former vice health minister, at a forum in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province.

China now has the most registered organ donors in Asia and the second highest number globally. Each year, about 300,000 patients need transplants but last year only 2,766 people donated major organs after death, almost double the number in 2014, and 10,057 transplants were performed.

On January 1, 2015, China banned the harvesting of organs from prisoners.