Urgent Appeal for Blood Donors
June 16, 2005The Full Story
The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) is again appealing to the public to donate blood, due to the critically low blood levels at its collection centres.
This appeal comes two days after World Blood Donor Day (June 14), when the NBTS issued an appeal to the public to donate more blood to save lives.
The situation has become so grim, that Ministry of Health officials and the Director of the NBTS, Dr. Lundie Richards met this afternoon (June 16) to find solutions to the current crisis.
The decision was taken for all collection centres to open this Saturday (June 18) from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., to accommodate more persons who wish to donate blood.
“We are making an appeal to all persons of goodwill, including the voluntary blood donors to come and assist us, because the medical service is being compromised because of the situation. we just don’t have much blood being processed at this time,” Sandra Brown, Communications Officer at the NBTS told JIS News.
Persons wishing to donate blood can visit the following blood collection centres – the Mandeville Hospital in Manchester; National Chest Hospital, University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the NBTS on Slipe Road in Kingston; May Pen Hospital in Clarendon; Port Antonio Hospital in Portland; Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland, and Cornwall Regional Hospital in St. James.
In addition, persons in the Corporate Area requiring transportation to donate blood at the NBTS and UHWI are invited to call the NBTS at 922-5181-5 for assistance.