Story: Mary Ankrah
THREE blood transfusion centres are to be constructed in the country to render quality service and reach out to the population.
The facilities will be built in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Robert Joseph Mettle-Nunoo, made this known at the commemoration of the 12th National Blood Donors Day and launch of the 2013 blood donation campaign in Accra.
It was on the theme: “Every blood donor is a hero”.
According to Mr Mettle-Nunoo, the blood transfusion centres would be constructed under phase III of the Ministry of Health (MoH) health services rehabilitation project.
He bemoaned the low patronage of blood donation exercises and indicated that majority of donors were family relations who had to donate to support their ailing relatives.
As a result of inadequate supply of blood and blood products in the country, he said, many people continued to die from pregnancy-related complications, road accidents, life-threatening anaemia and trauma.
He, therefore, underscored the need for all Ghanaians to regularly donate blood to save more lives and avoid needless deaths, adding that if one per cent of the population could make it their civic responsibility to donate at least twice in a year, the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) could collect adequate blood to meet the national requirement of 250,000 units per year.
The NBTS has a target of achieving 100 per cent voluntary non-remunerated blood donation by 2017 to make safe, adequate, affordable and efficacious blood and blood products accessible to all patients who may need them.
Mr Mettle-Nunoo also urged Ghanaians to find out what their blood groups were, so that in times of emergency they could be assisted on time.
Speaking at the event, the Director of the NBTS, Mrs Justina Kordai Ansah, commended all educational institutions, religious organisations, corporate bodies, community groups, individuals and various clubs for their immense role and contribution to the blood drive to save lives through blood donation.
“By choosing to donate blood without getting paid, you have committed a heroic act, a gesture of human solidarity with the power to save lives,” she added.
Mrs Ansah explained that the launch of the 2013 blood donation campaign was aimed at mobilising adequate safe blood for processing into blood components for all patients at the hospitals and clinics who might require blood transfusion, especially during the Christmas season.
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