Blood service pleas for the public to donate
On Monday the stock level at the Polokwane SANBS was on 2.4 days, meaning they can only provide blood for two days and a few hours.
POLOKWANE – The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) pleads with the public to donate blood. The service does not have enough blood and cannot supply hospitals. An allocation of 3 500 units of blood are needed daily to serve the needs of hospitals and other clinical requirements.
On Friday, the national blood stock levels were slowly increasing but remained lower than the five-days cover required.
Since the beginning of the year, the demand for blood has been consistently higher than the collections, especially for blood types O and B.
On Monday the stock level at the Polokwane SANBS was on 2.4 days, meaning they can only provide blood for two days and a few hours. According to Ipeleng Matseke, donor relation practitioner at Polokwane SANBS, the requirement is to have enough blood for five to seven days.
Thandi Mosupye, SANBS senior manager for marketing, communication and brand, says it is imperative to maintain a sturdy blood supply.
“When stock levels drop to 2.5 days or below, restrictions on blood orders is a likely eventuality and we are relieved that we are not there yet. This process is implemented when blood bank stocks are at the critical level of 2.5 days and below.”
Matseke says to elevate this number, people are required to go donate blood.
“It takes about 30 minutes for you to save a life. You need to be 16 years and older and weigh more than 50kg. The donation centre is open five days a week and there are mobile clinics across the city.
Polokwane is one of 83 blood banks and aid in the support of the 500 transfusion facilities in the country.
In order to allow access to this life-saving treatment without delay in a crisis, the SANBS has also implemented around 450 emergency fridges that are stocked with only Group O red cells to be used in life threatening bleeding situations. The O group is the universal blood group that can assist people with types O, A, B and AB.
Restrictions on orders is a process only applied in non-emergency situations and in consultation with doctors.
In non-emergency situations, clinicians have time to wait for a crossmatch and the patient can receive blood from a corresponding blood group, not putting further strain on the scarce group O stock.
This way, the universal group O units that can be reserved for emergency and other group O patients.
To donate blood visit the Polokwane Donor Centre in Potgieter Avenue.
