Calling for blood donation for emergency

According to the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, before the Lunar New Year, 30 units asked for postponing or cancelling blood donation campaigns with an expected amount of more than 8,000 units of blood. After the Tet holiday, 24 more blood donation events (until the end of March) with the planned collection of about 5,000 blood units in provinces and cities were canceled. Dang Thanh Hai from the Department of Blood Donation Mobilization and Organization said: "Currently, the demand for blood and blood products for treatment does not decrease while the amount of blood received can only meet 70-80 percent of plans by 177 medical facilities in 28 provinces and cities in northern Vietnam. The risk of blood shortage remains in the coming days ".

Students from the Ngo Gia Tu Bac Giang College respond to the "Red Spring Festival" in 2021.

In face of that situation, the provincial Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation has called on healthy people to donate blood at fixed venues in hospitals and medical facilities. In particular, it has effectively maintained standby blood donation clubs and teams whose members are ready to donate blood when there is an emergency.

Having donated blood many times and found his health normal, Nguyen Van That (born in 1999) from Yen Son commune (Luc Nam district) joined the Bac Giang Blood Donation Club to have more opportunities to contribute to this meaningful movement. On the occasion of the Lunar New Year, when the pandemic developed complicatedly, knowing that there was a case of thrombocytopenia and acute liver failure in emergency at the provincial General Hospital who was in urgent need of blood, the boy was not afraid of hardships to travel nearly 40 km from his company (in Bac Ninh province) to share his drops of red blood. Out of his 10 voluntary blood donations, this was not the first time this guy had donated blood in emergency.

Ensuring safety amid pandemic

With the motto of both promoting voluntary blood donation to minimise the risk of blood shortage for treatment and ensuring pandemic prevention and control, the provincial Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation has directed its chapters in districts, cities and units which were assigned blood donation mobilization targets in 2021 to continue organizing blood donation festivals based on real situations. However, they should consider organization of such events many times a year to avoid mass gatherings. Medical technicians, volunteers and blood donors must comply with the regulations of the Ministry of Health.

A technician from the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (the provincial General Hospital) performs screening techniques to ensure safe blood supply.

Tran Dinh Hieu, head of the Health Care and Voluntary Blood Donation Department under the provincial Red Cross Society, held that from now to the end of March, the unit plans to continue organizing voluntary blood donation festivals in the districts of Viet Yen, Luc Nam, Son Dong and Hiep Hoa. These are localities with high blood donation mobilization results, exceeding the assigned targets. Hopefully, with more than 2,000 units of blood expected to be received after this drive, the unit will share difficulties with medical facilities in emergency and treatment of patients, thus reducing blood scarcity amid the pandemic.

The Medical Center of Hiep Hoa district is currently one of the district-level health units performing hemodialysis. Vu Van Hoan, Director of the center, said that with the weekly planned amount of blood received from the provincial General Hospital, the unit still guarantees emergency and treatment, but if the blood shortage continues, it will surely face difficulties. To fix this problem, the immediate solution is to mobilize blood sources from patients’ relatives and voluntary donors.

“We will promote communications about the meaning and importance of blood donation to save lives, especially during this time when blood is scarce, to attract a large number of people to participate in, while collecting masks, hand sanitizer and soap to support pandemic prevention for medical technicians and blood donors during blood donation festivals”, said Le Thi Duyen, Chairwoman of the provincial Red Cross Society and deputy head of the Standing Board of the provincial Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation.

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