Services

The Blood Bank offers a number have services that persons, groups and organizations can take advantage of.

Blood Collection Drives

At present, the Blood Bank does not have a mobile unit for blood collection drives across the island. Not to be deterred, however, we take our equipment and staff of 10 persons out to the host site and replicate the donor room experience.

For the year 2006, we are planning to have at least 4 blood drives per month, garnering 400 units each month. For our goals to be achieved, Jamaicans between 17-65 years must make a personal commitment to donate blood at least twice per year. Partnerships with small organizations (non-government and government) and corporate entities are particularly important because they can open group accounts and benefit as a group

Blood & Blood Products

The Blood Bank provides blood and blood products to institutions and individuals for medical reasons.

Blood Group Test

Identifying ones blood group is another service offered by the Blood Bank. There are 4 main groups: A, B, AB and O in this population. The distribution is as follows:

O - 50% Group O is the most common

A - 24%

B - 22%

AB - 4% Group AB is the least common group

Rhesus Blood Group System: This system is complex but for the purpose of blood transfusion, one may be Rhesus Negative or Rhesus Positive. The distribution is as follows:

Rhesus positive – 93% of the population

Rhesus Negative - 7% of the population

Educational Talks

Organizations and groups can invite Blood Bank representatives to give talks and presentations.