Illustrative image (Source: VNA) HCM City(VNA) – The blood bank of the Ho Chi Minh City Blood Transfusion and Haematology Hospital is running low on blood stock for the upcomingLunar New Year (Tet) festival, said Director of the hospital Phu Chi Dung.
Doctor Dung said that thehospital’s blood bank supplies blood to over 100 hospitals in the city, with anaverage 800-1,000 patients needing blood transfusion each day.
The demand for bloodin the city has increased by 20-30 percent compared to last year as the numberof patients flocking to the city from other localities is rising.
While Tet is only 8weeks away, the bank still lacks about 13,000 blood packs (each pack containing250-450ml) to ensure supply, or 1,500 new blood packs each week.
However, Dr Dung isconcerned that the bank will not receive enough blood as many districts andwards have stopped calling for blood donation after reaching the targets forthis year, and will only resume the campaign in January 2019.
He said that he willpropose the city to raise the blood donation targets of districts, and call forlocals to donate their blood more times in a year.
Currently, the ratioof people donating their blood for two times or more a year in Vietnam is onlyover 1 percent of the total donors.
The Blood Transfusion and Haematology Hospital will also ask the municipal Department of Health toexpand the blood bank capacity to 750,000-1 million blood units per year fromthe current 250,000 units.-VNA
VNA
