Lack of voluntary donors hampers operations of blood banks
Lack of voluntary donors and inadequate staff are two significant factors hampering the efforts of the National Blood Service Ghana (NBSG) to get constant supply of blood in the country.
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Other factors identified by the NBSG include inadequate infrastructure in some zones such as the northern sector, and lack of funds.
The NBSG is an institution responsible for ensuring the adequacy and safety of blood and blood products for all patients in both public and private health institutions in the country.
According to the Head of Southern Area Blood Centre of the NBSG, Dr Paul Mensah, there was a need for voluntary donors of blood to help the NBSG to store adequate blood.
He made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic at the NBSG maiden Annual Performance Review 2013 in Accra on Tuesday.
The annual performance review
The Annual Performance Review 2013 had the theme: “Towards achieving safe, adequate and sustainable national blood supplies based on 100 per cent voluntary non-remunerated blood donations” and was meant to assess the performance of blood services in the country.
Participants in the annual performance review 2013 included medical practitioners from the various teaching hospitals, the Ministry of Health and allied institutions.
Donating blood
Dr Mensah said people should cultivate the habit of donating blood because the amount of blood in one’s body was more than what the body needed to function effectively.
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“Most people donate blood only when a relative is in a critical condition at the hospital, but if everyone will donate blood once a year, it will go a long way in saving lives,” he said.
Adequate human resource, he explained, was needed to assist in the collection of blood from the various communities, schools, churches and the corporate world.
TTH blood bank
The Head of Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) Blood Bank, Dr Juventus Ziem, said inadequate staff in the northern zone was affecting the ability of the Blood Service to work efficiently and stressed the need to recruit more staff members for the blood unit.
He also said equipment for plasma extraction, platelets shaker, microplate rocker, blood bags and other tools for screening and storing blood to improve its quality were also inadequate.
The means of transportation, Dr Ziem indicated, was another challenge. He, therefore, appealed for vehicles to enable the officials to move to more communities to collect blood.