Despite the CBTC´s effort of collecting blood by organizing emergency blood donation programs in the last few months, the supply still falls far short of the demand. [break]
In capital alone, 350 pints of blood are required every day. The CBTC, operated by Nepal Red Cross Society, has been able to supply only 200 pints of blood on normal days. However, the CBTC provides more pints of blood on public holidays.
"Our branch offices have been organizing emergency blood donation camps to ease the shortage," Dr Manita Rajkarnikar, director of the CBTC, told Republica.
"However, the demand is still unfulfilled." According to Dr Rajkarnikar, most social organizations tend to conduct blood donation programs only on public holidays and that´s why it is difficult for CBTC to make its technical staff available everywhere. "We can send our staff to only about 10 programs," she said. "If blood donation programs are organized on different days, instead all on the off days, we might be able to collect sufficient amount of blood."
"The blood collected on public holidays can hardly sustain the demand of the whole week," Dr RajKarnikar said. The CBTC has urged all social organizations to arrange more donation camps to ease the crisis.
The Blood Bank has asked to speed up blood collection not only to its branch offices outside the valley, but also districts adjoining the capital. "We sent 1500 pints of blood to the central blood bank in 2067 alone," Monoj Kumar Thapa, president of Nepal Red Cross Society, Bhaktapur chapter, said.
According to Thapa, they also sent 10,000 pints of blood to patients undergoing treatment at various hospitals in the capital and to those at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) of Dharan.
"However, most of our clients are from the capital. When patients don´t get blood from the central blood bank, they come to us," he added. In what is known as a replacement system, every one who wants blood from the CBTC has to donate blood. However, even this system has failed to ease the shortage.
Related story
World Blood Donor Day 2019: ‘Safe blood for all
