WE HAVE thankfully come through the accident and violence-prone holiday season without any serious incident which would have required a major drawdown on the country's blood supply. This is not to say the situation has not been critical. The National Blood Transfusion Service has quite literally run out of supplies. Towards the end of the year, at the UHWI alone, some 150 patients were in need of transfusions. While some patients can be helped by being given other fluids intravenously, in some cases there is simply no substitute for whole blood.
Donating blood has not been the most popular undertaking, and the health services exist, more or less, in a chronic state of shortage. What is not yet clear is why that situation has now been exacerbated without any apparent big jump in demand. If donating blood is declining, then the question has to be asked why and the answer found.
The convenience of giving blood has certainly been a factor in the unavailability of supplies. Essentially, donors are granting a favour and must be facilitated to do so as easily and as quickly as possible. The Central Blood Bank, on Slipe Pen Road in Kingston, is itself in a much less than ideal location. There is a need for more mobile collection centres that can take the collection drive to people rather than asking people to drop busy schedules and find their way to the fixed centres.
Misunderstanding and fear are other big reasons for the reluctance to donate blood. A more aggressive programme of public education should help. The fact of the matter is that anyone, or a loved one, could require a blood transfusion suddenly and without notice. Enlightened self-interest is a powerful motivator on which the collection drive should capitalise.
The assistance of groups and institutions which are anchored in communities could, we think, be profitably mobilised. Churches, for example, could be asked to aid collection based on their sense of service to the community.
Frantic appeals for donors at the eleventh hour, which are now becoming something of an annual ritual against entrenched unconcern, can hardly be the way to continue.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
