Blood donation targeted to reach 12,000 units in 2023 – Dr Ramsammy

Wednesday, June 14, has marked the global observance of World Blood Donor Day, and Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, has disclosed that the National Blood Transfusion Service has projected a target of 12,000 units of blood to be received via donations this year.

This statement was made during a World Blood Donor Day ceremony hosted by the Health Ministry’s National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) as a means to honour voluntary blood donors and encourage more persons to give blood.
The Health Ministry has stipulated that for a person to be considered eligible to donate blood, that person must be 17 years or older, weigh at least 110 pounds, be healthy and not infected or affected with a blood-borne disease, and be willing to donate blood.
Reiterating this year’s theme, “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often,” NBTS Director Dr Pedro Lewis has encouraged those eligible to make an effort to donate blood.
“The focus this year is also on chronic disease patients, including sickle cell anaemia patients, thalassemia patients. Without your help, those patients can’t earn a living, can’t go to school. They need your help to survive on a daily basis,” Dr. Lewis has said.
Last year, the NBTS facilitated the collection of just over 10,000 units of blood through collaboration with approximately 400 organisations around the country.
“Now that we are using plasma and platelets, every donation benefits and saves three lives. So, when we talk about 10,000 units, we talk about the potential of saving 30,000 lives per year,” Dr Ramsammy has said.
This year, the goal is 12,000 units of blood. Dr Ramsammy was however quick to note that this target would have to be rapidly increased to 15,000 units per year.
Guyana has made significant leaps in its blood donation rates, recording about 800 per cent more voluntary blood donation since the last two decades, according to Dr Ramsammy, who added that Guyana has also achieved 100 per cent voluntary blood donation.

“[Over 10 years ago,] we were in a situation where we actually had people who became disabled because we could not provide enough blood and blood products to save them from a disabling situation. We actually had people who died because they did not have access to enough blood. Today, we don’t have that situation,” Dr Ramsammy has said.
He explained that the country is in a good situation, where everyone in need is being taken care of either because there is blood or blood products in stock, or there is a process to ensure that persons would have their needs met.
“In terms of every 1000 people who are eligible to donate, we have now reached a rate of about 16 per 1000, and that is the average for high middle-income countries,” he said.
He noted that while this is an impressive achievement, Guyana still has some ways to go to reach the ranks of developed nations: such as the United States, which records blood donation rates of about 35 persons per 1000, and Europe, which notes donations of about every 31 persons per 1000.
“The programme has grown (to) where we have to move to blood-derived products. We’re still one of the countries that don’t produce that. Guyana is one of the countries that imports plasma-derived products. This is how our programme has grown; in terms of best practices, we are continuing to develop that,” Dr. Ramsammy added.
During the NBTS ceremony, awards were presented to several longstanding blood donors, as well as organisations who host blood drives throughout the year.
These included Marian Academy, Saraswati Vidya Niketan, Guyana Shorebase, Queenstown Masjid, Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Guyana Industrial Training Centre (GITC) and Dr. Balwant Singh Hospital.