Voluntary blood donation not encouraging – KATH

A senior Blood Donor Organizer at Blood Bank of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Arhin Benjamin, has bemoaned the low level of voluntary blood donation among the Ghanaian public.

He revealed that only one percent of Ghana’s population voluntarily walk into the various hospitals in the country to donate blood.

“Voluntary blood donation is not encouraging in this country. Most people only come in to donate when their relatives are in need of blood and this is not a good practice at all,” he observed.

“We don’t have to wait for accidents to happen before we go in to donate blood. Our blood bank should always be stock to capacity.”

Mr. Benjamin spoke to 3news.com during a blood donation exercise organized by the Ashanti Region office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) as part of activities to mark its annual fair.

The exercise was the second time the regional NHIA has organized to help stock KATH Blood Bank. Acting Ashanti Regional Director of NHIA Bawa Nurudeen stressed on the need for the public to voluntarily dedicate themselves to blood donation to help the country achieve its blood donation target.

He said the voluntary blood donation by the staff of NHIA has become part of the institution’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.

“The exercise has come to stay and would be organized periodically”.

He called on Ghanaians to donate blood voluntarily without remuneration to save lives. The exercise yielded about 100 pints of blood to the KATH Blood Bank.