By: Justicia Shipena
The blood transfusion service of Namibia (NamBTS) said that they now managed to fork enough blood for four days.
This comes as NamBTS, four days ago, announced it only had sufficient blood for two days.
NamBTS spokesperson Titus Shivute said they observed a gradual improvement after the urgent call last week.
“It moved from two days to a level of four days today,” said Shivute.
Shivute said they anticipate that all our stock levels will drop in the upcoming long weekend.
“Because we can’t host any blood donation clinics over the public holidays and every week, we are meant to bring in around 150 units of blood to ensure that hospitals have sufficient blood.”
He added that they had various blood donation sessions nationwide held at hospitals and medical centres.
“We tried to run a festive campaign we’re we want to various towns to avail an opportunity to each and everyone eligible to donate blood to do so.”
He said they started introducing shuttle services for individuals interested in donating.
“That means we can then pick them up, and then after they donate blood, we drop at their destination,” he said.
Shivute added that NamBTS extended its operating hours over the past two months to provide an opportunity for all to donate blood at their fix site centres.
He further said the significant boost for the shortage is that the blood bank plans to get back on track with hosting blood donations at various educational institutions in the new year.
Moreover, he said there had been significant disruptions with schools and tertiary institutions collections ever since the pandemic.
“We are hoping that we can revive blood donation sessions at schools and other educational institutions around the country. We are also planning to do blood drives in town such as Otjiwarongo, Okakarara in early January, which we ensure will stabilize the situation,” he said.
Should blood not be sufficient after the Christmas weekend, Shivute said the way forward is rationing blood.
“This means that in consultation with various general practitioners, if a patient requires six units of blood, then we would have to ration that request, and they would only likely to receive two units up until a time they can receive the full capacity.”
Shivute added that emergency cases have increased over the past two months.
More than 50% of blood donated countrywide should be blood-O type as it is compatible with patients of other blood types.
“We are trying to not get to a stage where emergency cases do not have sufficient blood supply.”
However, he said they still treat emergency cases as a priority.
“So, all trauma incidents are a huge priority. The number of car accidents over the past weeks is problematic with the festive. Still, there are other trauma incidences such as stabbing which the patient loses blood and requires transfusions,” said Shivute.
He urges citizens to donate blood to give the blood bank a go.
“If you are in Windhoek, up north as well as in the coast, we can also arrange transport for you,” he said.
In 2015, NamBTS also experienced a low running in bloodstock.
Last year in April, the blood bank also appealed to public members to keep donating.
At the beginning of this year, NamBTS also announced an extreme blood shortage.
