adminZvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
The US$200 per unit of blood charged by State hospitals is too high for the majority of people, National Assembly Health and Child Care Portifolio Committee chairperson Dr Ruth Labode has said. She said this when officials from National Blood Services Zimbabwe appeared before the committee recently.
NBSZ chief executive Mr David Mvere said they sold blood to hospitals at US$135 per unit and patients bought it at around US$200.
“We know that if a person is involved in an accident he/she requires about three or four units of blood and I know for a fact that on average we are talking of US$800, and we know for sure that more than 50 percent of our gainfully employed workers are earning less than US$400 and it means you have given up on them,” responded Dr Labode.
Mr Mvere said they used to sell the blood at US$80 per unit with Government paying the difference.
He said Government had not been adequately funding them and traditional donors had withdrawn or reduced funding.
These, he said, included the National Aids Council.
He also said Government hospitals owed them more than US$1 million. The committee asked why NBSZ removed NAC representatives from their board, with Dr Labode saying any investor had a legitimate claim to high-level representation. Dr Labode said Mr Mvere could not complain about dwindling NAC support and at the same time deny them a board seat.
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