The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital�s (KATH) Transfusion Medicine Unit, has appealed to volunteers to donate blood to help overturn the blood requirement deficit in the hospital to save lives.
Mr. Kwame Asenso Mensah, an official of the unit, said out of the annual average of 40,000 units of blood needed by the Ashanti Region to adequately cater for its population of about four million, it received only about 16,000 units, last year.
He described the situation as worrying, as this was putting lives of patients, particularly those in emergency cases, at risk.
Mr Mensah told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, that the reluctance of the people, especially the adult population to voluntarily donate blood must change.
�About 75 per cent of our blood stock is donated by students in second-cycle institutions, and when they are on vacation, we are found wanting,� he said.
He said the hospital, being a major referral health facility, was not comfortable with the insufficient stock which was a drawback to quality care.
Mr Mensah said the Unit has launched an intensive public education campaign to sensitize the adult population to show a more favourable disposition towards blood donation.
He said they are vigorously engaging religious bodies and other identifiable groups to help them to appreciate the importance of making regular donations to stock the blood bank.
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