Western region facing emergency blood shortage

By Nakinskie Robinson    

 

Clinical Coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority, Dr. Delroy Fray, says the region is now at crisis level as it faces an emergency blood shortage.

 

Dr. Fray is also expressing concern about a deeper crisis leading to a critical shortage of blood across Jamaica.

 

He is calling for the public to donate more blood. 

 

"There is no question that motor vehicle accidents and gunshot wounds consume a lot of our blood products," Dr. Fray lamented. 

 

As it relates to crashes, he urged the motoring public to be cautious on the country's roads, noting that "the vast majority of these accidents is due to speeding which causes "unnecessary injuries, unnecessary death, unnecessary hospitalisation, [and] unnecessary use of our blood products". 

 

He said with an increased supply, healthcare facilities will be better able to facilitate more patients who need to be admitted to hospital for treatment, such as cancer patients or those who are anemic. 

 

"And this will also help to ease my bed situation because if we have the blood products available, we can treat the patients quickly and get them out of our hospital," he noted.