Ridge Hospital has recorded higher maternal deaths due to shortage of blood – Dr Srofenyoh

The Medical Director of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), Dr Emmanuel Srofenyo, has revealed that the inadequacy of blood at the hospital’s blood bank has led to the rise in preventable deaths at the health facility.

Dr Srofenyo has stated that the Regional Hospital is currently overwhelmed with the high demand for blood and has therefore called on the public to voluntarily donate blood to restock the blood bank and save the lives of patients.

He told the Ghanaian Times that COVID-19 has also contributed to the depletion of the blood bank, adding that nursing mothers, accident victims, and other major dependants consumers of blood at the hospital struggle to get blood when the need arises.

“It’s heartbreaking to see preventable deaths occurring due to lack of appropriate blood at critical times when it is needed most,” said Dr Srofenyoh.

“One of the impacts of COVID-19 is the depletion of our blood bank. In fact, generally, the health system is not having adequate amount of blood so for instance over the years, hypertension has been a leading cause of maternal death in this facility but last year, we had more mothers dying from obstetric haemorrhage (excess bleeding) because we did not have adequate amount of blood in stock.”

The hospital in an effort to save the situation has embarked on a year-long blood mobilization exercise and has called on the general public to donate pints of blood to stock the blood bank.

“Blood is something we can not buy from the shop and we have to find people to donate so that is why we started this campaign. It is going to be a year-long campaign so we can get adequate blood and save more lives," Dr Srofenyo appealed.