Successful Blood Drive at St. Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital

Fifty units of blood were collected in a blood drive that was conducted at the St. Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital on Labour Day (May 23).

In an interview with JIS News, Acting Senior Medical Officer (SMO) at the hospital, Dr. Tanya Hamilton-Johnson, commended the effort, which she said was the initiative of the medical interns at the health facility.

“This was initiated by the younger doctors, who made the suggestion. I thought it would be a good way to give back to the community, which is what we have been focusing on in this our 90th year of existence,” she said.

The Acting SMO explained that blood collection is particularly important as the hospital lies along the major highway that connects the east to the west of the island, and that it is the main hospital that attends to traffic crash victims in the region.

“We use an average of 100 units per week and we collect approximately 150 units of blood per month from the community. As you would realise there is a deficit, so we thought it would be good to use Labour Day to improve the stock. We set ourselves a target of 100 units and we are happy that we were able to achieve 50 per cent of that,” she said.

She added that the blood drive efforts will continue throughout the year as the hospital staff try to make a difference in their areas.

The hospital is the only Type B Facility in the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA).

For her part, NERHA Regional Director, Fabia Lamm, who was on location, thanked the interns and the staff of the Blood Bank who were engaged in the blood-collection effort.

“It was a concerted effort of the entire team to bring the donors in so that the exercise could be successful, and I am pleased to see the outcome of the teamwork,” she said. “We had a very successful event and we are happy with the level of participation of the volunteers and staff members,” Miss Lamm added.