Negligible amount of blood discarded last year – Minister Cummings

Feb 04, 2017 News

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…Blood transfusion policy on the cards

Blood is crucial to life and the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS), the main national Blood Bank, will this year be working to improve its blood recruitment process. In so doing it will be aspiring to improve both

the quality and technical aspects of blood banking.
Reports suggest that the Blood Bank was able to achieve its 10,000 units of volunteered blood donations during the past year with a negligible amount, just over 100 units, being discarded due to infectious markers.
This is according to Junior Minister of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings.
Dr. Cummings said that in the quest to ensure that there is an improved service offered, moves will also be made to ensure that there is training for persons at regional peripheral sites.
“There will be more sensitization sessions conducted across the country in an effort to educate the population on the benefits of blood donation and erase any negative stigma attached to donating blood,” said Dr. Cummings. The NBTS will again this year be aiming to achieve 100 percent voluntary donation, she said.
The regional blood banking facilities, the Junior Public Health Minister said, will be visited during the course of this year with the intention of assessing and improving quality and standards in relation to blood banking and donor recruitment.
While statistics have not yet been shared regarding blood donations for this year, the Ministry has released figures that suggest that in 2016 there was a favourable start to blood donation. This translated to a total of 2,018 in the first two months in comparison to a slower start in 2015 with a total of 1,756 for the same two months.
The New Amsterdam Regional Hospital was a very productive section in blood collection but there is evident need for two Donor Attendants at their Blood Bank, Minister Cummings said. She added that the department needs to be equipped with more staff in order to expand and supersede its blood collection which is possible but had failed to materialize due to the lack of staff.
Another major challenge is the absence of a Blood Donor Organiser/Recruiter at the Blood Bank. This is a critical position which needs to be filled urgently. According to the Minister there needs to be specialised attention to donor recruitment and organising blood drives. She added, “The lack of a Donor Organiser has been a tremendous setback for the Blood Bank.”
But it was blood drives that were a major contributory factor to the donation in 2016 with the NBTS conducting approximately 93 blood drives across the country. There was interface with numerous organisations, institutions and business entities.
The Blood Bank had also participated at several health fairs where there were successful blood donations and collection, Minister Cummings revealed.
Donations would have seen an increase since the blood bank was able to expand its target population which now includes schools, military, faith-based organizations and Non-Governmental Organisations among other target groups. This has been done injunction with increased sensitization and awareness, according to Minister Cummings.
The blood bank has also conducted training on the ZIKA Virus and capacity building in the area of improving quality, in the phlebotomy, component separation and overall laboratory standards and practices. There was also a capacity building workshop for doctors.
Minister Cummings divulged too that moves have been made to have some major capital items be approved that will aid immensely in improving the blood banking process. In fact she revealed that a Blood Transfusion Policy was reviewed last year and was waiting to be presented at a Directors Meeting for approval.
Meanwhile, another achievement that the NBTS is currently boasting is that of becoming computerized. According to Minister Cummings, the Blood Bank donor records can now be officially declared as fully computerized.
She noted that at the beginning of 2012, the Blood Bank officially started using the Delphyn Software which is designed to register and store all donor information, inclusive of test results. The software also allows for traceability of each unit when it is distributed to various hospitals. However, it must be noted that this is not the sole method of storing data. All computerized records at the Blood Bank are backed up with forms and log books as a precaution.
Through its record keeping, the NBTS will on June 14, next, honour voluntary blood donors as part of the celebration of World Blood Donor Day.

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