Public urged to donate blood to save lives

The National Blood Bank at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital collected 160,624 units of blood countrywide in 2016, as against the standard required amount of 270,000 units.

About 3.6 per cent of the 160,624 was from voluntary unpaid blood donor sources, with a third of them being regular donors.

This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Blood Service (NBS), Dr Justina Kordai Ansah, at the commemoration of the 2017 World Blood Donor Day in Accra yesterday.

The day was marked on the theme: “Blood donation in emergencies”, with the slogan: “Give blood. Give now. Give often”.

Dr Ansah indicated that six out of every 1,000 people in any community donated blood in 2016, describing it as woefully inadequate for a lower middle-income country such as Ghana per the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Worrying phenomenon
The situation, she pointed out , severely compromised safety and adequacy of blood and blood components for both medical and surgical care in the health facilities, adding that that could worsen during disasters requiring blood transfusion.

She noted that the country could avoid that worrying phenomenon if only one per cent of the population committed to donating blood regularly.

While appealing to Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of donating blood regularly, Dr Ansah said the theme for the day sent a clear signal to all countries to adequately prepare ahead and ensure that the required quantities of blood in emergency situations were met and also help reduce the many avoidable deaths in the country’s health facilities.

Deputy minister assures
A Deputy Minister of Health, Ms Tina Mensah, who added her voice to calls for Ghanaians to endeavour to donate blood regularly, gave an assurance that the ministry would take steps to be actively involved in the campaign to increase awareness among the populace.

She pledged the government’s support for the creation of a comprehensive disaster management plan and the passage of legislation to back the status of the NBS to effectively deliver on its mandate.

The Country Representative of WHO, Dr Owen Kaluwa, urged Ghanaians to donate blood and submitted that everybody could play a role in emergency situations by giving blood, explaining that that was an essential component of emergency health care.

He said the serious humanitarian crisis facing Africa in recent times had revealed inadequacies in national health systems in most countries to manage health emergencies such as security and accessibility of blood.

Two persons — Dr Kobina Atta Bainson and Maame Kwaba Stephens — were named as blood donation brand ambassadors. Some institutions were also honoured for their contribution to the blood donation campaign.
Writer’s email: sebastian.syme@graphic.com.gh