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New protocol introduced at NBTS to reduce wastage of blood

Feb 25, 2010 News

In order to reduce the percentage of blood wasted at the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) the Ministry of Health has introduced an innovative protocol which requires vigilance on the part of staffers.
This is according to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, who revealed during a recent interview that the efforts are being geared at ensuring that all of the units of blood collected is actually used. However, he asserted that sometimes one or two units must be discarded because they do not pass the screening process.
“Blood is discarded in every country…I wish the day would come that all donated blood is useable but that will never happen.”
He revealed though that the blood bank is faced with some other challenges that also lead to the discarding of blood. Primary in this area is the failure by some staffers to process and store blood in the proper way.
According to him there have been instances where through the carelessness of staffers blood refrigerators were left opened. “Accidents can happen but these were not accidents, these were simply irresponsible behaviour.”
But according to the Minister, over the years such occurrences have reduced considerably. Nonetheless, he noted that in order to ensure that the wastage of blood is limited to a minimum the decision was taken to introduce an opening and closing protocol to monitor the operations at the blood bank.
“This simply means that there must always be a person in authority who is the last person who must go through a closing procedure that is signed. That person will have to do a checklist of things such as the windows, doors, etc, and sign to the status they leave same. If you sign and you didn’t do it and something goes wrong you are responsible,” the Minister underscored.
In essence, persons are not going to be disciplined because “we feel like it. They will be taking responsibility for their own actions or inaction.”
Another reason blood is discarded is due to the fact that hospitals have on occasions requested blood in anticipation of its use but failed to utilise same. However hospitals can continue to request blood, the Minister added.
“We don’t wait for them to; we give them blood before hand and we need them to check everyday what is their stock level so that we can adjust what we give. We don’t want people to over stock as we are moving towards a world-class standard.”
NBTS Coordinator, Shameeza Mangal, disclosed recently that the blood bank is modestly stocked but noted that there will always remain the need for donors to give blood on a regular basis. She said that the donation pace at the commencement of the year is usually slow but would usually reach a moderate level with some voluntary drives sponsored by private organisations.
However, the blood bank has had to rely on its call back programme through which appeals are made for previous donors to return and give blood.
“Every day we need donors to come because it is every day that hospitals are requiring us to supply them with blood…Demand is always greater than supply,” Mangal opined. She related that there are instances that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation alone may require more than 46 units of blood but a mere eight donors offer to give blood. A single donor is required to give one unit of blood, which can save at least three lives.
But despite the challenges, Mangal said that the NBTS is surely heading towards the Ministry of Health’s 100 percent voluntary donor target, which has been three years in the making. As at the end of last year, she said that voluntary donors represented 68 percent of the donations the blood bank received.
This development, she added, will soon rule out the need for family replacement donors.

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