Over 10,000 units of blood donated in 2022

In 2022, the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) achieved just over 10,000 units of donated blood, which was utilised to save lives.
This was shared by NBTS Director, Dr Pedro Lewis, who said that Guyana practices voluntary donations and every year aims to have approximately 10,000 to 12,000 units of blood donated.
He was speaking at their annual Blood Drive at Marian Academy, Carifesta Avenue, Georgetown. He stated that if more schools, organisations, and other companies can collaborate to facilitate such blood drives, it will help to educate the younger population, who will further educate their community and have an expansion of voluntary donations that will assist the NBTS.
“The younger people you donate to; the country will be able to benefit,” he stated.
The two agencies have been working closely for the last 16 years to organise annual blood drives where students, families and friends can voluntarily donate blood.
Principal of Marian Academy, Marine Harper highlighted that the school has been participating in blood donations since 2008, when their first partnership was with the Red Cross Society. Harper further explained that while COVID-19 made it difficult to organise the blood donation drives, they were able to resume this project just last year, hosting yet another successful event.
While appealing for other agencies to organise similar drives, she highlighted that every unit of blood donated will be beneficial to save as many lives in Guyana.
The Government of Guyana bears 100 per cent of the cost for blood product transfusion in the public health sector. This means that anyone receiving care at the GPHC or any of the public hospitals is entitled to receiving blood products at no cost to them and their families.
Guyana adopted since 2001, a 100 per cent voluntary donation programme for blood. Since that time, family members are not asked to donate blood before blood products are provided for transfusion.
For more than two years, the coronavirus pandemic has directly impacted the number of persons donating blood in Guyana. Pre-COVID, some 12,000 to 14,000 units of blood were donated every year. In 2021, only 9000 units were reportedly contributed to the Blood Bank.
The Health Ministry had announced last year that it was working to have blood donation and transfusion services in all regional hospitals while maintaining mobile operations. The process of blood transfusion takes about 15 minutes, and a unit of blood can only be kept for 35 days, after which it must be disposed of.