Mobile blood donation unit in trouble

Chairperson of Sewa International TT (Sewa TT) Revan Teelucksingh is claiming that the operations of the country's only mobile blood donation unit operated by the Friends of the Blood Bank Association (FBBA) is currently under strain due to financial pressures.

In an interview with Newsday, Teelucksingh shared that Sewa TT usually partners with the FFBA to host three blood drives per year but this year only two drives were organized with the third recently being cancelled. This cancellation is as a result of FFBA being under financial strain, a problem he alleges began three years ago.

Speaking on the start of FFBA's problems he said, "For the last couple years they (FFBA) have been really struggling and have not been receiving government subventions on time." He also alleges that on some occasions subventions have not been paid altogether.

He noted that there are seven blood banks with six located in hospitals while the seventh is the country's only mobile unit operated by the FFBA. With a close knowledge of the FFBA's operations, Teelucksingh shared that the association usually raises funds to operate the unit but the government's subventions form a critical aspect of their operations as it helps with the payment of the mobile unit's nurses, drivers and Phlebotomists.

"We (Sewa TT) started to notice the problems around three years ago. Around two years ago the van started to break down." He claims that in the face of FFBA's financial woos, Sewa TT has assisted the mobile unit in its operations even managing operations at times.

"The staff are not being paid and its hard for them to work."

Questioned if there have been any attempts to speak with government officials about the issue he said, "We are trying to make this a point of attention for the administration."

Teelucksingh claims that the issue is not being sufficiently addressed by the health ministry and as such he is trying to raise awareness around the issue.

With these claims he lamented,"This (mobile unit) is a very important unit in the entire healthcare sector."

Taking the opportunity to explain that blood banks operate on a replacement basis he alleges that the reality is that the country has not been collecting the amount of blood it supposed to and efforts such as the blood drives by FFBA are where most of the voluntary blood donations to replenish stocks are derived from.

"For surgeries, they use what are in stock and we replace in it in the blood bank."

Lamenting that blood collection is already in a dire state, Teelucksingh fears the inability of the FFBA to properly function will have unfortunate circumstances.

"The system works well when everything is funded and organized properly. In desperation people will pay for blood, that is the reality."

Noting that there is a continued need for blood he said, "If we don't get the amount of blood we require you will find people complaining that their surgeries will be postponed and people won't get blood transfusions on time." He also shared that there are people in TT suffering from rare blood diseases such as Thalassemia who require blood on a monthly or weekly basis in some cases.

He also fears that there will be the creation of a black market for blood where persons may pay for blood that is not properly screened.

Asked what people can do in the time being if they would like to donate blood, Teelucksingh called on persons to visit the blood banks located in hospitals.

Efforts to speak to members of the FFBA executive were futile with the Newsday being referred to various individuals, all of which preferred not to speak on the matter. Calls to the National Blood Transfusion Service were directed to the FBBA while calls to the blood bank at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex went unanswered.

In a Facebook group purported to be associated with the FBBA there was a message which stated, "The Friends of the Blood Bank Association has temporarily suspended its operations. It is hoped that its operations will resume in as short a period of time as is possible."