THE National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) has begun readying itself for the demand of blood that will be needed as Guyana builds a ‘state of the art’ trauma centre to manage emergency cases.
This was made known by NBTS Director, Dr Pedro Lewis, at a recent event honouring dedicated local volunteers.
“We have to realise that the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) is moving towards building a trauma centre very soon, and when we talk [about] trauma, we are talking about a lot of blood needed,” Dr Lewis said.
During the presentation of the 2019 National Budget held last year, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, had indicated that the country is engaging with its developmental partners to facilitate the construction of this trauma centre.
During the budget debate, Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, indicated that this trauma centre would replace the Accident and Emergency department at the Georgetown Public Hospital, which is Guyana’s main hospital.
The trauma centre would foster management of emergency cases, including addressing patient flow, isolation and capacity. And trauma cases are usually those injuries which have the potential to cause prolonged disability or death, including but not limited to falls, motor vehicle collisions, stab wounds, and gunshot wounds.
Dealing with trauma cases however would require a large and constant supply of blood, according to the NBTS director.
Currently, blood is collected throughout most of the coastal regions, where according to Dr Lewis, the NBTS has staff working and is ably supported by organisations.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, even indicated that the MoPH has begun work in collecting blood from donors in hinterland regions too, just so that the life-saving substance is collected from donors of various demographics.
“If you’d ask if we have enough blood, I would say I’m not satisfied but we are there, with respect to the patient’s that we have now,” Dr Lewis said, explaining that with the creation of this trauma centre, there is going to be a higher demand for blood.
“We need approximately five per cent of Guyana’s population to be voluntary donors, which is about 30,000 to 35,000 donors,” he said.
Currently, there are more than 10,000 voluntary donors in Guyana who contribute to the country’s record of 100 per cent voluntary donations. These donations, which are expected to amount to about 12,000 units for this year, are adequate to satisfy the requests of the private hospitals and the public facilities.
The CMO, while noting that the amount of blood received through voluntary donations, indicated that he would like to see this amount increased to 30,000 units in the coming years.
In an effort to attract more donors, the NBTS director and the CMO told members of the audience to actively encourage persons to donate their blood.
In fact, the CMO related that once a person is healthy enough, they can donate one pint of blood as often as every two months. He further noted that studies have shown that there are health benefits for persons who do donate blood.
