Concern over drop in blood donations: Blood bank issues SMS passes to donors

Blood donors can now use a blood bank SMS as a curfew pass to travel to and from the blood bank, a senior official said. National Blood Transfusion Service ( blood bank) Director Lakshman Edirisinghe said Defence Ministry approval had been obtained to implement the SMS pass system for donors as there was concern over the drop in the number of donors due to the curfew.

“Our main source of donation is the mobile camp. With the present pandemic situation and the curfew imposed, it is impossible to organise mobile blood donation camps. As a result, the number of donors has drastically reduced,” he said.

Dr. Edirisinghe said they had introduced two 24-hour hotlines -011- 5332153, 011- 5332154 -- for donors to get an appointment before visiting the blood donation centre. An SMS would be send informing the donors of their allocated time slot.

“When the curfew severely affected the blood donation process, we appealed to the security forces to donate blood. We managed to maintain the stocks, with police, tri forces and civil defence personnel donating blood. Yet we cannot solely depend on security forces personnel as they are heavily involved in the COVID-19 pandemic control programme. Hence we requested the Defence Ministry to permit the public to visit the blood bank and donate blood,” the director said.

Pointing out that the Colombo district, which accounts for the most number of mobile blood donation camps, was still under curfew, Dr. Edirishinghe said, “Closures of government offices and private sector offices have a direct impact on blood donation. However, a decline in road accidents and routine surgeries during this curfew period has reduced the demand for blood,” he said.

However, he noted that the bank needed to maintain a stock to serve cancer patients, those suffering from lymphoma and leukemia, thalassemia patients, emergency caesarian sections and child patients requiring platelets.

The blood bank has also been involved in collecting plasma from recovered COVID patients for the treatment of severely ill COVID patients.

“The daily requirement was about 1500 red cell concentrate ( RCC) but it has now dropped to 400 a day. However, it is important to maintain about 500-800 for traumatic emergencies,” he said.

The director said they were considering the possibility of holding a limited number of mobile camps under under strict health regulations. He appealed to social service and religious organisations to coordinate with the bank and organise such camps for a limited number of donors.

Assuring that strict guidelines were being followed when donors were selected, he said blood donation would not be accepted from people who had travelled overseas during the past three months or if a family member had been exposed to a person who had come from abroad or to a COVID- 19 patients.

The blood bank collects more than 400,000 units ( in 450 ml units) of blood every year, with 100 percent from voluntary unpaid blood donors. At present there are 101 hospital based blood banks and two stand- alone blood centres in the country.