German govt praised for blood transfusion system support

Islamabad : Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Aamer Mahmood Kiani on Tuesday appreciated the support provided by the German government through KFW Development Bank to create the new blood transfusion system in Pakistan and expressed the new government’s desire to see continuation of the successful Pak-German collaboration in that respect.

He was talking to Safe Blood Transfusion Programme national coordinator and Islamabad Blood Transfusion Authority (IBTA) Chairman Prof Hasan Abbas Zaheer, who called on him at the minister here.

The minister underscored the significance of the preventive aspect in healthcare especially blood transfusion and committed full support of the new government for strengthening the blood transfusion system in the country.

He termed the achievements of the blood transfusion service delivery and regulatory sector remarkable and lauded the commitment and dedication of Prof Zaheer in pioneering the blood safety systems reforms in Pakistan.

The minister was very impressed by the achievements of the programme, which despite many challenges successfully completed the implementation of the first phase of the project in which a nationwide infrastructure has been created consisting of construction and equipping of a network of 10 modern regional blood centres, and renovating and refurbishing 60 existing hospital blood banks.

This infrastructure is now functional and providing quality transfusion services to the people of the region. Currently, the Phase II of the project is in progress, with the continuing assistance from the German KFW Development Bank, in which the scope and coverage of the project is being expanded in addition to strengthening the gains of the first phase particularly the smooth operationalisation of the newly developed infrastructure. It is estimated that after the completion of the Phase II of the project in 2019, about 35% coverage of the national service delivery will be through the new system.

The minister will soon visit one of the Centers and inspect the new service delivery system.

Prof Zaheer also briefed the minister about the working of the IBTA. As a result of the sustained and committed efforts of the IBTA leadership the blood regulation has been streamlined in the federal capital.

According to Prof Zaheer, currently, 18 public and private sector blood banks have been granted licences, five are registered and five have been closed down due to poor standards. He briefed the minister about the revived IBTA developed a very successful model of regulation based on constructive non-punitive approach. As a result, all blood banks in Islamabad have all essential required equipment, trend of automation is increasing, all blood collected is processed into three blood components, there is 100% automated screening for Hepatitis B and C and HIV, automated cross-matching is performed in the larger blood banks and the documentation standards have improved considerably.

In addition, there is improved sensitisation of voluntary blood donation and blood safety and the trend of voluntary blood donation is increasing.

Prof Zaheer said the IBTA regularly organised activities to strengthen the capacity building of the blood bank personnel and there is an excellent and close coordination between the regulator and the service providers.