Students donate blood in HCM City. (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s Blood Bank, Blood Donation Centre and hospitals have
organised blood donation programmes throughout the city for () holiday to
prepare for a possible shortage as more accidents occur during the period.
Donations are expected to decline
during the period as students, who are the main blood donors, and other
residents who return to their hometowns during Tet will
not be available.
Dr Tran Thi Nhu To, head of the
Blood Donation Centre of HCM City, told Vietnam News Agency that several health
facilities in the city lacked blood for treatment but there was not a severe
shortage of blood last year.
The city’s Blood Bank, which is
in charge of supply and regulating units of blood for all hospitals in the
city, needs more blood for storage, according to To.
The city has called on state
officials and students to donate blood until February 13, To said.
The centre aims to collect 14,000
to 16,000 units of blood. Of these, 8,000 to 12,000 units will be sent to the
city’s Blood Bank, To said.
At Cho
Ray Hospital’s blood transfusion centre, which is the fourth largest in the
country, its staff are busy testing all the blood collected from the five
provinces in the southeastern region.
Dr Le
Hoang Oanh, the centre’s deputy head, said there has been a shortage of blood
types A and O for some time.
The
centre aims to collect more than 16,000 units of blood to produce other
products for emergency aid and treatment at Cho Ray Hospital and 35 other
hospitals in five southeastern provinces.
If it
cannot reach the target, it will ask for help from blood centres in Can Tho, Khanh
Hoa province’s Nha Trang city and Binh Duong province.
Staff at HCM City Hospital of
Hematology and Blood Transfusion, where the city is located, will cooperate
with organisations and universities in the city to organise many blood donation
programmes.
Dr Phu Chi Dung, the hospital’s
head, said that to ensure blood storage for all 100 hospitals and health
clinics in the city and neighbouring provinces, the hospital has organised
frequent .
It has also set up satellite
centres to receive blood donations at the city’s gates, Dung said, adding that
a bank for rare blood types has been set up at the hospital.
The Blood Bank needs at least
8,000 to 12,000 units of blood for storage during Tet holidays, he added.
Over the last several weeks,
students at universities have been donating blood in response to the need.
Huynh Quynh Nhu, a new graduate
of HCM City University of Foreign Languages-Information Technology, said that
she has blood type O and is ready to donate many times.
On January 16, she donated blood
at the launch ceremony of a community-based programme called Nha Sach Don Tet
(Cleaning House to Welcome Tet) to
raise funds for Lunar New Year charity activities, organised by the honorary
South African Consul in HCM City.
Under the Red Sunday Programme in
HCM City, which lasts from January 2 to 21, up to 15,152 blood units from many
students were collected.
The programme was held by the National Institute of Haematology and
Blood Transfusion, the National Traffic Safety Committee, Tien Phong (Vanguard) Newspaper and
others.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
