SGH needs at least 75 blood bags daily, says medical officer

KUCHING (Jan 31): The Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) needs at least 75 blood bags on a daily basis to maintain an adequate inventory of blood supply, says a medical officer from the hospital’s blood bank.

According to Dr Lu Siew Ling, while the supply at the blood bank is currently within the sufficient level, the stock should always be maintained at a safe and adequate level to meet the transfusion needs of patients.

“We still need all donors to come and donate blood continuously because our hospital needs to supply at least 70 to 75 blood bags per day to all the patients.

“On top of that, the blood bags have expiry dates as well,” she told reporters when met at the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) and Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) joint blood drive held at Plaza Merdeka here yesterday.

Present at the event was Deputy Minister in Sarawak Premier’s Department (Corporate Affairs, Information and Ukas) Datuk Abdullah Saidol.

Dr Lu said another reason that the blood bank must maintain a consistent supply of blood stock was that SGH was also supplying blood to private hospitals and district hospitals in the state.

“So we cannot say that because the blood stock is now within safe levels so we can stop receiving blood donations – no such thing.

“We will still need to continue our blood drive so that we can have at least 75 blood bags per day,” she stressed.

She urged donors from all blood groups to come and donate their blood whenever they could.

“The SGH blood bank is open Mondays to Fridays, but for weekends, they can check the blood bank’s Facebook page where we have a blood drive schedule to inform donors on where they can go to donate their blood or if our centre is open,” she said.

Meanwhile, Unifor director Datu Jack Aman said the blood drive jointly organised with Ukas was a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative held in collaboration with SGH’s blood bank and Plaza Merdeka.

“This drive is a great platform to raise awareness on the importance of donating blood and a noble opportunity for voluntary donors to donate their blood to save a life.

“Blood is needed to help SGH treat patients with cancer, blood disorders and those suffering from medical trauma or undergoing surgery. Each pint of blood can save or improve up to three lives,” he said.

He expressed his appreciation to all blood donors including those from Unifor, the state civil service, members of Association of Churches Sarawak, Federation of Sarawak Temple Associations, Kuching Division Journalists Association (KDJA), Malaysian Buddhist Association Sarawak branch, Malaysian Hindu Sangam Sarawak branch, Pullman Hotel Kuching, Sarawak Sikh Temple Association, Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Sarawak, Sri Maha Mariamman Temple Kuching and the public for coming forward to generously donate their blood.

Also present were Ukas director Samuel Simon and KDJA president Ronnie Teo.