KUCHING: Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) Blood Transfusion Unit (blood bank) is constantly in need of blood supply to save lives.
A senior officer of the SGH’s blood bank who requested anonymity said yesterday that they need the supply so that there will be no shortages and urged the public to donate generously for the good cause.
He said that usually there will be shortages during the holiday seasons at the end and beginning of the year.
He explained that during this period, public and especially staff from corporate and government agencies regarded as regular donors were usually on holidays.
The trends of blood shortages tend to be at the end of the year as hospital faced many accident cases. He said that these type patients needed more blood transfusion than others.
To ensure constant supply, they often relied on their regular donors and also donors from uniformed government agencies like the police and the army to donate them blood.
The Blood Bank also had a mobile unit especially during weekends stationed at public places such as shopping malls or even organised venues to
get public to donate their blood.
He said that the response had always been good but if they were desperate enough, they often resorted to regular individual donors by contacting them through Short Messaging Services (SMS).
The officer also revealed that the shortages were not faced by SGH blood bank alone but all the hospitals in the state. They would do the same thing to ensure enough supply of blood.
At the moment, the spokesperson said that SGH blood bank is short of type “A” “B” and “O” blood but have sufficient “AB” type.
Their monthly usage is between 1,300 to 1,500 pints of blood of various types and if they have 1,700 pints then they are safe.
The criteria for being a blood donor are they must healthy (no medical cases of any kind and on medications).
The persons will be medically screened before they can be allowed to donate their blood. They must be between the ages of 18 to 60 years of age and weigh at least 45kg.
They can donate once every three months. One donor will provide around 450ml of blood and adult usually have 10 to 12 pints in their body.
He also explained that once the blood has been donated it can be used either as a whole blood to help one patient or after separation into components (red cell, platelets and plasma) to help different type of patient.
He cited example that the shelf life for red cell is between 35 to 42 days, platelet have a life of five days and used by those who had dengue or on chemotherapy and plasma had a one year life and is usually used for burned patient.
The spokesman said depending on medical cases, a patient usually requires around two to six pints of blood.
The SGH Blood Transfusion Unit or the blood bank is open between 8am to 4.30pm from Monday to Friday.
Donors can come during lunch hours as they are also open and at the weekends the mobile units will be stationed at the designated venue.