Providenciales, TCI, October 13, 2016 – Blood Donations need to be dramatically increased as the country sees more and more medical procedures done on island; the Bank is often making urgent pleas to the public and a recent workshop exposed that this situation needs to change.
“I think that generally, Turks and Caicos has done a very good job, but in considering how the health infrastructure has grown and more procedures are being conducted locally, the blood supply need to grow accordingly. And when I looked at the data about the number of blood units collected year over year, it has shown dramatic increase, but even today I was informed that there is urgency in getting blood to the hospital because it’s affecting patient care if they do not get blood donors in the door.”
Linda Barnes is from the Pan American Health Organization, and not only was she here for a two day workshop aimed at strengthening our blood bank system; but she was here to help us to draft a national policy; something PAHO is requiring all countries to do. “So we talked a lot about strategies, we actually completed a draft policy on universal access to safe blood, so we will be positioning Turks and Caicos to respond to PAHO’s request that we put a blood policy in place, and we also talked about real down to earth strategies, good ideas, what I’ve seen in the different countries that I’ve worked in ranging from central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa and now the Caribbean.”
A regular pattern of blood donation is key and Barnes said the mix of public and private practitioners were exceptional and motivated to see the policy established in law and to find ways to engage more community groups so that the Blood Bank is never broke of having safe and universal access to blood.
