Graphic, National Blood Service to educate public
The Director of the National Blood Service (NBS) Ghana, Dr Justina Kordai Ansah, has called for collaboration between the NBS and the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) to help educate the public on the importance of voluntary blood donation.
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Dr Ansah made the call when she led a two-member delegation from the NBS to pay a courtesy call on the Managing Director (MD) of the GCGL in Accra.
Her call comes in the wake of the recent reports that the National Blood Bank had run short of blood and was, therefore, unable to meet the requests of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and others that depended on it for blood supply.
Voluntary donors
Dr Ansah noted that while voluntary blood donation was crucial for the effective running and survival of the unit (because of the lack of education and information about the exercise), most voluntary donors had failed to respond to several appeals for help by the NBS.
That, she said, had affected the unit dearly, stressing that people needed blood to survive.
Collaboration with the GCGL
To this end, Dr Ansah said collaboration between the media and the NBS was very necessary to help the blood bank to achieve its objectives, as it organised blood donation exercises.
“There is the need to get the media, second cycle institutions and other corporate services involved in the exercise to train the public on blood donation,” she said.
Dr Ansah said at the moment, the NBS had been able to obtain 45 per cent voluntary donor blood and expressed optimism that with the assistance of GCGL, the percentage could hit 100.
She added that the NBS had trained personnel who always ensured that the exercises were perfectly done.
GCGL Response
The Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, commended the initiative by the NBS to help save lives noting that the unit could not do it alone, and therefore called on all members of the public to help.
He pledged his unflinching support towards the success of the initiative.
Mr Ashigbey added that he would ensure that enough education and information about the exercise would be disseminated.
“We will let people know about the exercise. In order to show our commitment, the company will also organise such exercises for the workers and the general public to help NBS to obtain enough blood,” he said.