Lives on the line as Effiankwanta Regional Hospital Blood bank dries up

The blood bank of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional hospital has been adversely affected as a result of the ban on social gathering following the outbreak of coronavirus in Ghana. The facility mainly depends on mass blood donation exercises from churches, schools, and other organizations as its main source of blood supply. However, with the imposition of restrictions on such groups, and public gatherings, the facility is struggling to meet its demands.

Senior Blood Donor Organiser of the hospital, Mr. Emmanuel Essien tell us the facility, on a normal day, usually have 500 pints of blood in stock, but the situation has left the hospital with no single pint of blood in stock.

“The main problem now is the unavailability of blood because of the coronavirus outbreak. People are still maintaining social distancing and since we mostly do blood donation exercises in mass gatherings, we can no longer organizes the exercises. This has led to the acute blood shortage at the facility. The only blood we have now belongs to relatives of sick people. But if there is an emergency, and there should be someone willing to donate,” he indicated.

He is calling on all voluntary donors to come to the facility in their number to offer some donations to stock the blood bank. According to him, all precautionary measures have been put in place to ensure donors are safe.

“So, we are just entreating the general public to come in their numbers to donate blood. We need blood in stock to save lives. We have put in place measures to make sure that everybody who comes to donate blood will be safe. We have all the precautionary measures including mask, sanitizers washing equipment and other stuff to make sure all voluntary donors are safe,” Mr. Emmanuel Essien indicated.