Blood Bank Commended for 70 Years of Service

Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Jamaica, Dr. Bernadette Theodore-Gandi, has commended the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) for 70 years of ensuring “safe blood for all”.

She said the agency is providing an essential service while meeting the challenges of an increasingly demanding and changing environment.

Dr. Theodore-Gandi noted that over its seven decades of existence, the NBTS has disseminated information to raise awareness about the importance of giving blood, improved the infrastructure for blood donation, ensured quality services to blood donors, established quality assurance systems for blood services, and supported the development of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service.

“You work tirelessly and with a significant commitment to providing a vital public service for everybody who requires a blood transfusion to live,” she said. Dr. Theodore-Gandi, who was addressing a World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) ceremony at the NBTS on Slipe Pen Road in Kingston on Friday (June 14), expressed satisfaction at the agency’s dedication to building partnerships with critical stakeholders in order to reach communities and encourage eligible persons to donate blood. She pointed out that strengthening links in communities has helped to build awareness about the importance of blood donation.

“That spirit of partnership is uplifting and unique and demonstrates how far we can go when different sectors of society come together in pursuit of the common goal of ensuring safe blood for all,” she said.

PAHO works to support countries in critical areas of action, such as establishment of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service, collection of blood from exclusively voluntary donors in low-risk populations, testing of all blood for compatibility and transfusion-transmissible infections, and reduction of unnecessary transfusions.

WBDD, observed on June 14 every year across the globe, seeks to raise awareness about the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.