Blood Bank gets bus

The National Blood Transfusion Service, more commonly known as the Blood Bank, has received a new 15 seater bus valued at $2.9 million to assist with its mobile collection services. Rudyard Spencer, the Minister of Health, who handed over the bus, said he hoped it would contribute to the shoring up of the country’s blood supply.

"Conservative estimates based on the number of injury cases seen each year put the country’s very immediate needs at approximately 45,000 units of blood annually but we only collect an average 25,000 units. The collection at most of our ten centres across the island is far below the usage in those regions. This inevitably means that medical and surgical care could be seriously compromised," the Minister said.

He added that this was particularly significant for Jamaica which has recorded a number of trauma and accident related injuries each year. 

For 2008, our health centres alone saw 3,018 patients for intentional or violence related injuries, an increase of 11.4% when compared to the 2007 figure of 2,709.

For unintentional or accident associated injuries the number of visits was 23,074 moving from 10,847 in 2007. 

"This does not even include the numbers that come to our accident and emergency units at public hospitals. These figures underscore our need to increase blood collection urgently.  We have been struggling for years with a consistent shortage of blood and so we have to put measures in place to improve the situation. This mobile unit will go a far way in assisting with this process," Mr. Spencer pointed out.