THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr Ken Sagoe, has urged the residents of Tamale to offer themselves for voluntary blood donation, describing it as a noble service to mankind.
He said he had been a voluntary donor since his youthful days, adding that “I am happy that I have also helped save the lives of other people. You too could make a difference.”
Dr Sagoe made these remarks when he addressed voluntary blood donor organisers from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions during the opening of a three-day training programme for the organisers in Tamale.
The training was organised by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) to update the knowledge, skills, attitudes and practices of the organisers with regard to blood transfusion.
Dr Sagoe said voluntary blood donor organisers needed to intensify their education drive to get more donors, because the blood banks required more stock.
He said this season, which is noted for Malaria, was particularly a critical period where a lot of children suffered anaemia and, thus, needed blood transfusion.
The Chief Blood Donor Recruiter at the Ghana Health Service, Mr George Kwaku Ahiadzro warned health officials against the misuse of blood products, since that could cause a shortage of essential blood needed for transfusion.
He said the service had realised that some persons and institutions failed to use the blood provided them from transfusion for the right purposes and this resulted in the wastage of the blood.
“Sometimes, they do not use the blood for the right patient and also fail to return the blood to the blood bank for other users,” he explained, adding that others also undertook blood transfusion when it was not necessary.
Mr Ahiadzro said it was difficult to collect and screen enough blood for the purpose of transfusion, because many people had not yet accepted the idea of donating blood voluntarily.
“Again, the voluntary donors who want to re-donate blood have to wait for a period of four months to recover after a previous donation. So we cannot rely on the few voluntary donors on a regular basis,” he further explained.
The Chief Recruiter mentioned that Ghana currently had only 37 blood donor recruiters and this was woefully inadequate for a country whose population hovers between 22 and 24 million.
He said for that reason, the NBTS was working towards getting more voluntary blood donor organisers on board so that they could assist the formal sector recruiters to scout for more blood donors.
Mr Ahiadzro also disclosed that the service was undergoing a restructuring exercise to enable it to decentralise its operations and be in a better position to provide blood to patients in all parts of the country in a timely, safely and adequate manner.
He noted that, the decentralisation would enable the service to police blood usage and curtail wastage.
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