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| A student donates blood in HCM City. –VNS/Photo. Gia Lộc |
Viet Nam News
HCM CITY– The HCM City Hematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital has asked the city’s People’s Committee to set a higher quota for blood donations in all districts to resolve the shortage of stored blood.
All districts should call on the public to donate blood, especially for the upcoming Tết holidays which will start on February 5, Dr Phù Chí Dũng, the hospital’s head, said at a meeting on blood donations last Friday.
This year, only 85 per cent of the committee’s targeted plan of blood donations for storage has been met, Dũng said, adding that hospitals have seen an increased demand.
The hospital provides blood to more than 100 hospitals in the city.
Hospitals in the city use 800 to 1,000 blood packets per day, an increase of more than 200 compared to previous years, he said.
The volume of each package is between 250 and 450 milliliters.
If the situation continues, the amount of stored blood will fail to meet hospitals’ demand, especially during the Tết holiday, he added.
The hospital’s blood banks lack about 13,000 packets of blood.
Next year, at least 260,000 blood packages will be needed. The figure will increase to 280,000 if the hospital provides blood to hospitals in Long An and Bến Tre provinces.
Dũng said that most people donate blood only once a year.
The rate of people donating blood more than twice a year in the country is 10 per cent of all donors.
Only 1 per cent of the country’s total population donates blood, while the rate is 2 per cent globally.
Dũng said that each person could donate blood four times a year.–VNS
