Emergency! B Positive blood needed!

For a week now,  the blood bank in the capital has been running short of B positive blood. At the moment, the bank has a total of 71 units of which only two units are B positive which have been stored for emergency.

The authorities are trying to call up people in their lists to come forward to donate blood.

According to Blood Bank lab technician, Tenzin Rabgay, the bank always has low blood stock   but this time, “there is a chronic need of B positive”.

About 10 to 15 units of blood are issued to the patients in a day.

“Moreover, we have more patients who are B positive including gynecology patients, chronic and dialysis patients, as well as referrals and emergency patients from accidents,” he said. For the chronic patients alone, about five to six units of blood have to be transfused, he added.

He said that on March 5, five units of blood were collected out of which only two units were B positive but the blood was unscreened; only after screening  can the blood be used for transfusion.

“Presently we are compelled to take replacement donors (family donors) though to some extent it is not safe. Thereby patients are forced to call their relatives to donate and these people too are compelled to donate their blood since they cannot refuse their peers or families.”

Tenzin Rabgay said that as an alternative, the lab is looking for voluntary donors because they   are much safer since they have regular check-ups whenever they have donation schedule. “We go for 100 percent voluntary donors,” he said.

Blood Bank In charge Dr. Mahrukh Getsen said these days with more patients, blood demand is high while supply is low. “Therefore all the individuals may kindly contact the blood bank if they want to donate blood, in particular B group, any day, any time,” she said.

 

Check Also

Opposition Party to assess the government’s performance after 1 year

The Opposition Party stated it will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the government’s performance after …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *