Ledzokuku MP demands certification for regular blood donors

Dr. Benard Okoe Boye of Ledzokuku Constituency is calling for a sort of certification for blood donors to ensure they get priority attention when they need blood.

Many ardent donors, he said, have complained bitterly that despite efforts at constantly donating blood, they are compelled to pay huge sums of monies when their relatives need blood.

According to him, innovative ways should be developed to encourage more people to donate blood throughout their lives and stressed certification could be one of these incentives.

Dr. Okoe Boye made the call while contributing to a statement on World Blood Donation Day.

He said, “We can have a programme that gives some special certificates to those who donate blood so they can serve as waiver for at least one or two people every year.”

“This could be an incentive to get them going all the time. You cannot be part of a process, donate blood four or five times a year and when your relative needs blood you are asked to go strictly through the process just like those who don’t even know about the programme.”

Dr. Okoe Boye urged the general public to develop the habit of donating blood or encourage others to do so as advocates because everyone is a potential victim who may need blood and not a third person.

He noted there are opportunities that a donor benefits from that include ability to access oneself and develop a benchmark in terms of health.

He indicated there are health conditions that would impede a person from donating blood and these include heavy drug use, hypertension, diabetes and hepatitis among others and stressed through the process, donors get to know some of their healthy conditions.

“The other opportunity of the process is that donors ensure there is enough stock to keep the system working.”

World Blood Donation Day is celebrated annually on 14th June worldwide in recognition of voluntary and unpaid blood donation accepted as the safest method of collecting blood.

Ministers of Health from across the world in May 2005 during the 58th World Health Assembly made a unanimous declaration of commitment and support towards voluntary blood donation through resolution WHA58.13.

The theme for this year’s campaign ‘Blood donation and universal access to safe blood transfusion, as a component of achieving universal health coverage,’ calls to action all governments, national health authorities and national blood services to provide adequate resources, systems and infrastructure to increase collection of blood and institute oversight and surveillance on the chain of blood transfusion.