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Midlands Bureau
National blood levels are falling, with the country having stocks to last only two days, NBSZ chief executive Ms Lucy Marowa has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Blood Donor Day commemorations held in Kwekwe at the weekend, Ms Marowa said the number of people who were willing to donate blood had dwindled.
The most sought after blood group, O, was out of stock meaning any patients on emergency needing the type of blood cannot be helped.
O group blood can in an emergency be given to anyone.
“The situation is not well. Under normal circumstances, we are looking at having stocks that last at least five days at any given time, but at the moment we only have blood that can last only two and half days. We are out of stock of the O group, which is the most sought after type of blood,” she said.
Ms Marowa said NBSZ was coming up with outreach programmes to encourage blood donations from individuals.
“We have since deployed our teams to visit schools across the country so that we harvest as much blood as we can from donors,” she said.
Specialist surgeon, Dr Brain Paketh, who was attending the commemorations, said blood was an essential commodity that was critical in the medical field.
“Blood is an essential element in human beings survival. Nothing can replace blood. We need it say for women in maternity, those with trauma, accident victims and many other cases. People should learn to donate so that we all play part in saving lives,” he said.
Government pledged to play its part to capacitate the NBSZ to operate at full capacity.
Health and Child Care Deputy Minister Sleiman Kwidini said Government was doing everything to improve blood stocks.
“We are seized with the challenges that the NBSZ is facing in their operations at the moment. We are going all out to ensure that we increase their budget allocations for them to be able to be operational at full throttle. People need to learn that donating blood saves lives and we should all go out to help those in need,” he said.
Meanwhile, several schoolchildren and the Kwekwe community took the opportunity to donate blood as part of commemorating World Blood Donor Day.
Online Reporter