National Blood Service calls for legal backing to enhance performance
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Blood Service (NBS), Dr Justina K. Ansah, has appealed to Parliament to pass a legislative instrument (LI) to give the NBS legal backing in its operations.
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She said the absence of an LI had posed many challenges to the operations of the NBS.
Dr Ansah made the appeal in a report on the performance of the NBS at the annual performance review meeting of the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other health institutions.
She said for the NBS to meet its targets, the legislative arm of government must pass the bill into an act.
She explained that the NBS targeted to achieve 50 per cent voluntary donation nationwide in 2016 but achieved only 36 per cent, representing 58,201 voluntary donors.
The various blood centres also achieved 55 per cent voluntary donation, as against the targeted 60 per cent, she added.
Challenges
According to Dr Ansah, the poor showing was as a result of numerous challenges facing the NBS, including inadequate vehicles, lack of essential equipment and logistics, as well as indebtedness of client facilities.
“Human resource, such as inadequate numbers of skilled staff and delays with financial clearance for recruited staff, are also some major problems which delay operations,” she noted.
She said some partners, including the Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) and J. A. Plant Pool, supported the operations of the NBS with a Toyota mini van and a trailer head and also refurbished a blood collection trailer to enhance the operations of the NBS last year.
Way forward
According to Dr Ansah, to meet the 50 per cent target this year, the NBS would organise a capacity-building workshop to enhance the skills of the personnel and the management.
She noted that stakeholders’ involvement in the operations of the NBS was encouraging and expressed the hope that it would be improved to enable the service to attain its target for this year.
Assurance
Mr Benjamin Nyakutsey of the Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) Directorate at the MOH, assured the NBS that the ministry would put the necessary measures in place to create an enabling environment to enhance its operations. .
He said the ministry was working hard to ensure that every sector under it functioned effectively.
“It is our responsibility to provide the necessary resources, coordinate activities and create an enabling environment for the NBS to operate. The ministry will ensure all these are done for smooth operations,” he pedged.