Agreement inked for setting up blood centre in Islamabad

Islamabad

An agreement for the Safe Blood Transfusion Project for Islamabad region was signed here Friday.

Hassan Iqbal, secretary of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and Wolfgang Mollers, country director of German KFW Bank, signed the agreement in the presence of Minister of State for CADD Dr. Tariq Fazal Choudhury and project director of SBTP Dr. Hasan Abbas Zaheer.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Tariq appreciated the German government’s support for the project. “Access to safe and quality blood is a key priority of the government. With the development of a modern blood centre in Islamabad through this agreement funding, the citizens of the federal capital will soon have a model transfusion service delivery system,” he stated. The minister of state further informed that the government is building a large tertiary care hospital in the vicinity of the Blood Centre so that the hospital can also benefit from its services.

Dr, Tariq said, the target is to have the new Blood Centre completely reliant on voluntary and regular blood donations so that patients are not burdened with the task of providing blood donors.

Wolfgang Mollers thanked the minister for taking interest in implementation of the project. He also congratulated the minister on the agreement signing through which a modern Blood Centre will be developed in Islamabad. He assured that highest standards of construction will be maintained and latest equipment will be provided for this Centre and for the hospital blood banks in Islamabad.

Mollers also committed to become a voluntary blood donor in the new Centre. He said, similar Regional Blood Centres and hospital blood banks have been successfully developed and equipped in the first phase of the project all over the country, and now the German government is supporting the second phase of this project to expand the scope and coverage of the project in Pakistan.

Dr. Hasan Zaheer informed that the German-funded Islamabad Regional Blood Centre will be constructed in a central location in Islamabad in the vicinity of a new hospital, health institutes, colleges and universities. The Centre will sensitize and mobilize voluntary blood donors and collect their blood. The collected blood will be processed, tested, screened and blood components prepared and stored according to quality assured systems. The prepared blood components will be supplied to all public and private sector hospitals in Islamabad. The existing blood banks in the Islamabad hospitals will thus be re-modelled and transformed into patient-oriented blood banks that will only collect the prepared components and store them until utilized by the patients.

The new system, managed by a computerised management information system, will thus improve blood safety, bring economy of scales, prevent duplication of services and rely 100 per cent on voluntary blood donations. He added that the Islamabad Blood Centre would develop international collaborations for trainings and research and development, and also serve as a model for the provinces to emulate.