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