Officials urge support for Linden Hospital blood drive
– stress “poor” annual response
Calls are being made to residents of Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice), moreso the Linden community, to support the annual blood drive hosted by the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC).
The calls are being made by officials of the medical institution as it continues its quest of saving lives through blood transfusions. In an interview with the Guyana Times, Senior Medical Technologist attached to the hospital, Melanie Sinclair, said response from members of the community has generally been “poor” over the years. She pointed out that there is need for more awareness and education campaigns geared towards motivating people to donate blood. She said more needs to be done in terms of educating members of the public on the importance of so doing.
LHC PRO Toshanna Alicock
“Because even if you go on television and you say you’re having a blood drive and what is the venue, if persons don’t know why they need to give blood, the importance of it, you find that they won’t come,” she pointed out.
She added that the hospital is hoping to expand the blood drive in terms of stakeholder contribution.
Meanwhile, LHC’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Toshanna Alicock, said this year, in an effort to improve support for the blood drive initiative, the health institution will be targeting companies to come on board. She appealed to members of the public to show support, noting that one pint of blood can save three lives.
“We hope that companies would get on board. We know that they house a lot of employees, so we’re appealing to different companies; that’s the plan. We haven’t sent out official letters as yet, but we’re hoping that the companies would accommodate us…especially corporations… to see how best they can accommodate us for our blood drive this year”, she explained.
Alicock said the hospital would also be hosting blood drives at various exhibitions this year. As is customary, she said, the LHC also plans to have a booth set up during the hosting of the annual Linden Town Week event this year to cater for blood donations.
