Blood reservoir very low
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday December 18, 2014 14:58
Currently, the national bank has 209 thousand units of screened blood and 105 thousand units un-screened, said Joseph Moatshe, the recruitment coordinator at the NBTC.
He said at this time of the year, there is a great need for blood because of the many fatal road accidents that may occur. To that end, the blood bank is open for donations. “We continue with more blood collections in two blood donation centres, namely Gaborone and Francistown,” Moatshe said.
Upon realising these points were not collecting enough, last August four additional blood donation sites opened at Molepolole Scottish Hospital, Mahalapye Hospital, Sekgoma Memorial and Maun Hospital.
Moatshe said with the new sites, they hope to “improve the blood situation”.
As part of the blood donation mobilisation, a Youth Donation Day campaign was started.
Moatshe noted that young people are essential blood donors given prevailing health conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes among older populations. The campaign is anticipated to run past the Christmas holidays. Moatshe said around this time last year, they had a reasonable supply in the blood bank. This was despite the annual shortages that are encountered. “The fact that we do collect more blood from secondary schools and that they close early leaves us with low collections from companies,” he said.
The two national referral hospitals, Princess Marina and Nyangabgwe, have the highest blood consumption during the festive season. Marina for instance, orders around 500 to 600 units per month and can go high around this time. Moatshe said all blood products were in demand depending on patients’ need. He added that platelets have a life span of five days, while fresh frozen plasma for example lasted a year, making the demand for the platelets high.