Mr James Alorwu, the Head of Laboratories at the Tumu Hospital, has appealed for the expansion of the laboratory and to stock it with bigger fridges and ergonomic furniture for the staff at the facility.
He said power fluctuations at the hospital had damaged two fridges in the laboratory with only one fridge left as the blood bank which could contain only 45 units of blood at a time.
Mr Alorwu made the appeal when the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the laboratory to find out what activities had been planned for World Blood Donor Day, marked on the 14th of June, 2023.
“There is no ergonomic furniture to sit on, the ones there are wooden furniture that have no armrest and backrest and this leaves the technicians with pain in the back and can affect the staff sitting posture and develop into muscular-skeletal syndrome in the future”, he explained.
It is for the above that “I am appealing for the laboratory to be expanded for the current laboratory to accommodate the working staff, increase privacy for clients and provide a sitting area for the public, whilst attention is paid to the provision of bigger fridges as blood bank and ergonomic furniture.”
Mr Alorwu disclosed that on average, the laboratory uses 80 to 90 units of blood every month for clients hence blood donation was critical to the facility.
“On this day, the unit celebrates and encourages voluntary blood donors to continue to visit the facility as life savers to help stock the blood bank, as life savers each unit of blood donated saves three lives”, he added.
He said blood donors were vital to the health delivery system as day in and out they were confronted with anaemia patients, accident victims, and people with chronic diseases like leukaemia, liver cancers and pregnant women losing blood while giving birth who need blood.
He explained that though blood was not a commodity that was sold, a token was charged for screening to replace equipment used in the process and to also take care of persons that come into the facility without donors.
Mr Alorwu said the number of voluntary organisations that donated was going down and appealed to groups to make blood donation part of their activities.
He thanked base 69, kamatech and other donors for supporting their work, and encouraged the public to find time to come to the laboratory to have their blood group known and to also donate blood.
According to World Health Organisation, (WHO) the slogan for the 2023 World Blood Donor Day campaign, celebrated on 14 June 2023, is “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often.”
It focused on patients requiring life-long transfusion support and underlined the role every single person could play, by giving the valuable gift of blood or plasma.
The first World Blood Donor Day was observed in 2004, which was followed by its designation as an annual global event.
GNA
GRB
June 19, 2023
Picture caption: Laboratory technicians at the laboratory in Tumu
