KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 27 — The National Blood Centre (PDN) is ready to coordinate and mobilise blood supply that is available at the centre, to states affected by floods, if there was a need.
National Blood Centre’s Transfusion Medicine Specialist Dr Zalina Mahmood said it was inline with one of the centre’s tagline ‘Blood Without Borders’, whereby the coordination and mobilisation can be done throughout the country without restriction.
“Everything will be managed by the National Blood Centre because the blood bags need special packaging and preservation and placed in special containers before being distributed to the specific destination or location where blood is needed.
“PDN has the expertise to send blood bags by air during major floods like what happened during the 2014 major floods in Kelantan. During such situations, communications and collaboration with the various agencies involved is very important,” she said.
Dr Zalina added that blood centres in states that are not affected by floods will also be mobilised through additional promotional programmes to ensure there are enough blood donors to cater for the demand during major tragedies, including floods.
She added that during floods, blood donation drives cannot be carried out at states affected by floods and therefore, states that are not affected by floods should carry out additional blood donation drives to stock up blood supply.
In general, 2,000 to 2,200 blood bags are needed a day throughout the country to treat about 1,000 patients throughout the country while PDN itself will need about 500 to 600 bags a day.
“Several states are at risk of being affected by floods, therefore, we are in the first phase of preparations and identifying stock inventory for blood supply in detail. We will analyse the situation from time to time and if there is a downward trend we will activate the strategic plan.
“We will enhance promotion for blood donation drives through the PDN’s social media platform and through various blood collection centres in states and collaborate with the various government agencies, non governmental organisations and uniformed bodies like bomba, armed forced and police,” she said.
— Bernama
