NATIONAL Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) in collaboration with Tanzania Red Cross has collected about 97 per cent of the targeted blood units in the three-month period from July to September this year.
The NBTS's Public Relations Officer, Mr Rajab Mwenda, told journalists on Thursday in Dar es Salaam that a total of 40,974 units of bottles were collected from the three months' estimated units which were about 42,500.
He said that eight per cent of the collected blood came from the satellite centres including Morogoro which contributed about 1,158 units of blood, Dodoma 818, Mnazi Mmoja 490, Kigoma 93 and Lindi 323.
"In the quarter of July-September this year, 32 per cent of the total collected bottles used to make Packed Red blood cell, platelets and plasma, the goal was pillars 40% of blood to be collected," said the officer.
According to him, NTBS also collaborated with other stakeholders such as Blooming and Engender health care where they managed to launch the new satellite blood centre in the Kigoma centre which will be able to collect 5,000 units of blood per year.
He added that NBTS is faced by numerous challenges including high demand for blood compared to its acquisition and budget deficit that causes the failure on implementing the planned strategies, it has been said.
"The average annual demands for blood is about 45,000 units, but we managed to collect 160,000 units per year, this is caused by shortage of fund", he clarified adding that some of the challenges are brought by dishonest employees who tend to sell blood despite its free distribution.
Mr Mwenda furthermore pointed out the strategies that they have been made in order to meet their goals at the end of this year.
The strategies includes continued cooperation with religious institutions in providing education and encouraging believers to share their blood voluntarily, conducting a campaign of encouraging the majority to donate blood during the World HIV/Aids day which takes place on December 1 as well as enhancing the public private partnership in the whole process of blood donation.
"There are concerted efforts that we are making in order to ensure the availability of blood for the entire year, some of them is promoting collaboration with regional administration who could facilitate the availability of the required funds to the local satellite blood centres," he said.
He also called upon the public to participate in the blood donation exercise which started from November and expected to end in January 2015 due to the fact that it is a period where students are in their holidays hence increases the blood units' demands.
By Deogratius Kamagi
There is a high cost associated with the latest technology that is being setup in Top Private Hospitals in Delhi. The past decade was marked by an explosion of private healthcare facilities in metro cities. They have more specialized medical experts that could deal with specific health related conditions.
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