‘Speed up passage of National Blood Transfusion Bill’

The National Blood Service, Ghana (NBSG) has called on the government to accelerate the passage of the National Blood Transfusion Bill to enhance blood collection and voluntary blood donation.

“The absence of the national blood transfusion law has resulted in the lack of co-ordination of blood services nationwide, resulting in occasional shortages at the national blood bank,” the Director of the NBSG, Dr Justina Ansah, has said.

She made the call during a presentation of the 2014 performance review of the service in Accra last Wednesday.

The passage of the bill, she said, would give legal backing to the NBSG status of blood collection and processing.

“The bill will also ensure the complete implementation of the National Blood Policy adopted in 2006,” she said. 

The policy provides a broad framework within which the NBSG is expected to provide safe, affordable, accessible and adequate blood and blood products for patients.

It was presented to Cabinet in 2009 and re-represented in 2014.

Performance review 

Presenting the 2014 performance review, Dr Ansah said although the NBSG achieved most of its set targets for 2014, it could have done better.

She said despite the successes, blood collected during the period was not adequate, resulting in occasional shortages  during the year under review.

She attributed the shortfall to a number of challenges including unreliable provision of adequate quantities of essential and standard consumables such as test kits, reagents and blood bags.

Other challenges, she said, included inadequate funding, indebtedness of most health facilities to the service, inadequate number of trained staff and the inadequate proportion of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors from the low risk population.

She therefore, called on the public to imbibe the habit of donating because the amount of blood in one’s body was more than the body’s requirement to function effectively.

• Writer’s email doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh