Officials of the Tema General Hospital (TGH) Blood Bank have commended residents, schools, institutions and religious organizations in the Tema Metropolis for voluntarily donating blood regularly to the facility.

Mr John Ahadjei, Principal Blood Donor Organizer at the TGH Blood Bank, speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the “World Blood Donor Day” said residents, educational institutions, churches and other stakeholders have made blood shortage at the facility a thing of the past.

The World Blood Donor Day, which is celebrated annually on June 14, was observed this year, on the theme: “Blood Connects Us All” and a slogan of “Share Life, Give Blood”.

Mr Ahadjei noted that the stakeholders often contacted his outfit to collect blood as part of their activities.

“The Tema Dioceses of the Catholic Church and Methodist Church have done extremely well. Every Sunday, we have the opportunity to collect blood from one of their churches”.

He added that because of their voluntarism, Tema and Ashaiman no longer struggled for blood for patients and currently TGH has over 100 unscreened blood bags.

He disclosed that the Blood Bank provided blood to over 17 institutions while about 30 to 50 pints of blood were transfused to TGH in-patients daily.

The TGH Principal Blood Donor Organizer appealed to organizations, churches, other religious organizations and individuals to add blood donation exercises to their programmes to ensure that blood was always available to help save lives especially in emergency cases.

He debunked the notion that hospitals sold blood to donors when they needed it explaining that the amount paid was rather processing fee as blood collected from donors were raw materials that could not be transfused directly.

Mr Ahadjei noted that the blood collected had to be quarantined and processed into white and red blood cells as well as plasma which could then be given to a patient depending on their specific needs.

He also explained that if a person voluntarily donated blood once, his donor card entitled him or her to receive up to two pints of blood.

He added however that a blood donor card owner could obtain a pint of blood for a relative or friend after four voluntarily donations.