73,000 blood bags collected so far this year
‘Humanitarian duty’: Al-Haifi
KUWAIT CITY, May 27: Assistant Undersecretary for Legal Affairs at Ministry of Health Salman Ali AlHaifi affirmed that the total number of blood bags collected so far this year has reached 73,000. About 8,000 bags of blood platelets have also been collected from blood donors and during blood donation campaigns.
He said this in his speech, which he gave on behalf of Minister of Health Dr Jamal Al-Harbi, at an event organized by Ministry of Health on Thursday to celebrate World Blood Donor Day under the slogan “Donate Blood… Give it now and in large quantity”.
Al-Haifi declared about the renewal of global recognition of blood and immunological laboratories as global reference laboratories to provide blood of rare kinds and to participate in the international blood exchange program to provide blood of rare kinds.
He said the Central Blood Bank has become the third blood bank in the world to receive this recognition, affirming that the laboratories for genetic testing of blood groups have been accredited, making Kuwait second globally after the United States of America to have such laboratories.
Al-Haifi stressed that donating blood is a humanitarian duty in which the whole society must participate, expressing gratitude to all who contributed to increasing the stock of blood and for their big role in saving the lives of others.
He affirmed that the ministry will not spare efforts in providing comprehensive medical services such as blood transfusion services.
Al-Haifi stressed the keenness of Blood Transfusion Services Department to provide safe blood through the best internationally-approved modern scientific methods, adding that it is on this basis that it earned global recognitions such as the one from American Blood Bank Corporation.
The Board of Directors and management of Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) made a field visit to Al-Zour Refinery Project site in order to explore the latest developments.
The visit follows another carried out a fortnight back at the Liquefied Gas project facilities.
KIPIC Chairman Hamza Bakhash and CEO Hashim Sayyid Hashim, who were part of the delegation, said the work at Al-Zour Refinery is ongoing quite well despite some expected challenges.
Hashim indicated, “We will benefit from 50 percent of the supervisors, engineers, operations and maintenance staff who were working in Shuaiba Refinery before its closure”.