78 blood banks to be upgraded

ISLAMABAD: The government has planned to upgrade 78 blood banks in all provinces to have standard transfusion services for citizens.

Addressing a press conference here, Project Director Safe Blood Transfusion Services Program, Dr. Hasan Abbas Zaheer on Thursday said that under the project 13 regional blood transfusion centres will be set up besides initiating programs to encourage people for blood donation.

He said there is also a plan to conduct national level survey to know the number of blood banks functioning in the country, their standard and services being provided at these banks.

He said after this survey the government will start working on streamlining these banks besides looking after others aspects like improving testing services, pricing etc. He said like other parts of the world, there is also a plan to have national level institution to maintain the standard of blood banks.

He said there is no national voluntary blood donation program that could recruit and retain donors. He added efforts are being made to ensure access of every person to safe blood for transfusion.

Dr Abbas said nearly 98 percent of blood donations in Pakistan are from family donors giving blood as replacement to the ones transfused to their relatives or friends.

This situation needs to be changed by World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners discourage this form of donation while encouraging voluntary unpaid donations, he added.

He said it is imperative that the national and provincial blood transfusion programs develop their own system and mechanisms of developing programs to encourage and retain voluntary blood donors and keep a regular supply of healthy blood for those in need of it.

Dr Tahir Saeed from WHO said that the WHO is working worldwide to support the national and provincial blood transfusion programs in providing them technical support to build systems that could ensure availability of quality assured blood.

He said in Pakistan the WHO has been working with the national program since its inception on all issues of policy, advocacy, development of standards and protocols, training of health care providers, and monitoring and evaluation.

He said the WHO has recently launched a new project to ensure quality screening of all blood that is collected and transfused in the country.

He said the WHO has mobilized funds for the procurement of blood screening kits for HIV, hepatitis B and C worth USD 7.8 million which would be sufficient in providing free blood screening in all blood transfusion centers in the country for next two years.