Blood Bank employees for Argentina workshop

Aug 18, 2016 News

In an effort to strengthen the local system, three medical personnel from the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) will be heading to Argentina next Tuesday to partake in an exercise focused on Quality Management and Control in the area of blood banking.
The exercise, which will take place at the Garrahan Hospital in Argentina, represents phase two of a three-year programme which falls within the framework of the South-South Cooperation Agreement between the two South American Nations.
Acting Director of the NBTS, Dr. Pedro Lewis will be spending two weeks in Argentina, while Quality Manager, Ms. Davina Singh and Donor Organiser, Ms. Tonza Bamfield will be spending one week.
Speaking at a press conference in the Ministry of Public Health’s boardroom yesterday, Argentine Ambassador, Luis Martino explained that the overall aim of the programme is to improve the blood safety levels in Guyana by building and strengthening human capacity, knowledge and technology.
Phase one of the programme saw Dr. Ana Del Pozo, who has a strong background in the blood services sector and Dr. Sebastian Oknaian, an expert in quality control in blood transfusion, visiting Guyana in 2013 and in December 2015.
Ambassador Martino said that upon the completion of the first phase the experts shared with him, that they detected many strengths at the NBTS.
According to the envoy, this upcoming phase will now allow the participants to have a first-hand view of the procedures and standards at the Garrahan Hospital. It will also, in his view, help in the development of a plan for ongoing capacity building in all the regions with a blood banking presence.
The third phase entails a visit by the Argentine team to Guyana in December of this year, followed by the continuation of training for the three NBTS medical personnel in 2017.
Ambassador Martino said that if all goes well with the three-year programme, they are ready and willing to broaden the scope of the South-South Cooperation in health beyond blood transfusion to other areas, such as medicine.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lewis explained that the NBTS has already been able to improve its services due to the visits by the consultants during the first phase of the programme. Areas which have seen improvement include, blood management and the collection of statistics.
In addition to the NBTS at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Guyana also has a blood banking presence at the Suddie Regional Hospital, West Demerara Regional Hospital, New Amsterdam Regional Hospital and the Linden Hospital Complex.

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