DOH, Red Cross want own supply of blood

The Department of Health (DOH) will intensify the collection of donated blood to lower its dependence on commercial blood banking regarded to be unsafe and wasteful.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said that the DOH, with a parallel effort of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), will increase the collection of blood from donors all over the country to attain an adequate and safe supply for those who need it.

The bid, Dayrit explained, was in line with the government’s plan to fully implement Republic Act 7791 of the National Blood Services Act of 1994 which provides for the establishment of a voluntary blood donation system as the main supply of blood instead of the still predominant system of commercialized blood banking.

Dayrit pointed out that voluntarily given or donated blood is regarded to be three times safer that those collected by commercial blood banks who purchase blood from willing individuals.

Dayrit added that people who go to commercial blood banks to sell their blood are desperate people who are probably unhealthy, with a dire need for cash. It was learned that the DOH and PNRC move to intensify their blood collection got a major boost when they each acquired two fully-equipped blood collection buses from a more than P10 million donation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Dayrit said that with a mobile blood collection vehicle, the DOH and PNRC can go to distant areas to look for people, healthy ones, who are willing to donate blood for sick people who desperately need it. – Rainier Allan Ronda