Students donate blood in HCM City. (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Ho Chi Minh City’s Blood Bank, Blood Donation Centre and hospitals haveorganised blood donation programmes throughout the city for Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday toprepare for a possible shortage as more accidents occur during the period.
Donations are expected to declineduring the period as students, who are the main blood donors, and otherresidents who return to their hometowns during Tet willnot be available.
Dr Tran Thi Nhu To, head of theBlood Donation Centre of HCM City, told Vietnam News Agency that several healthfacilities in the city lacked blood for treatment but there was not a severeshortage of blood last year.
The city’s Blood Bank, which isin charge of supply and regulating units of blood for all hospitals in thecity, needs more blood for storage, according to To.
The city has called on stateofficials and students to donate blood until February 13, To said.
The centre aims to collect 14,000to 16,000 units of blood. Of these, 8,000 to 12,000 units will be sent to thecity’s Blood Bank, To said.
At ChoRay Hospital’s blood transfusion centre, which is the fourth largest in thecountry, its staff are busy testing all the blood collected from the fiveprovinces in the southeastern region.
Dr LeHoang Oanh, the centre’s deputy head, said there has been a shortage of bloodtypes A and O for some time.
Thecentre aims to collect more than 16,000 units of blood to produce otherproducts for emergency aid and treatment at Cho Ray Hospital and 35 otherhospitals in five southeastern provinces.
If itcannot reach the target, it will ask for help from blood centres in Can Tho, KhanhHoa province’s Nha Trang city and Binh Duong province.
Staff at HCM City Hospital ofHematology and Blood Transfusion, where the city Blood Bank is located, will cooperatewith organisations and universities in the city to organise many blood donationprogrammes.
Dr Phu Chi Dung, the hospital’shead, said that to ensure blood storage for all 100 hospitals and healthclinics in the city and neighbouring provinces, the hospital has organisedfrequent blood donation programmes.
It has also set up satellitecentres to receive blood donations at the city’s gates, Dung said, adding thata bank for rare blood types has been set up at the hospital.
The Blood Bank needs at least8,000 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 graduateof HCM City University of Foreign Languages-Information Technology, said thatshe has blood type O and is ready to donate many times.
On January 16, she donated bloodat the launch ceremony of a community-based programme called Nha Sach Don Tet(Cleaning House to Welcome Tet) toraise funds for Lunar New Year charity activities, organised by the honorarySouth African Consul in HCM City.
Under the Red Sunday Programme inHCM City, which lasts from January 2 to 21, up to 15,152 blood units from manystudents were collected.
The programme was held by the National Institute of Haematology andBlood Transfusion, the National Traffic Safety Committee, Tien Phong (Vanguard) Newspaper andothers.-VNA
VNA
