Businesses urged to integrate blood donation into CSR activities

The Head of Transfusion and Medicine Unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Dr Shirley Owusu-Ofori has appealed to organisations in the Ashanti Region to integrate regular blood donation and support for the unit into their corporate social responsibility programmes.

She explained that companies could organise periodic blood donation exercises and at the same time funding the activities of the unit to ensure that it had adequate blood to cater for all emergencies.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Kumasi, Dr Owusu-Ofori dispelled the wrong impression created by some people about blood donation and insisted that staff of corporate entities could donate blood and immediately after that continue to work without any adverse effect.

She said although the blood bank depended heavily on the benevolence of secondary schools, additional support and sponsorship from corporate entities would help redouble their efforts at whipping up interest about voluntary blood donations among Ghanaians.

She explained that secondary schools had been donating blood but the numbers tend to go down a little when schools were on vocation. Regular donations, she said would ensure that the bank meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) Blood Collection Index (BCI) of seven pints per 1,000 inhabitants instead of the current national figure of 4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants.

Dr Owusu-Ofori commended corporate entities that have been partnering the unit to mobilise people to donate blood especially MTN for the increased support even at short notice.

She appealed to religious organisations to encourage their members to voluntarily donate blood and suggested that the churches could call at the offices of unit at any time.