Medical director urges Nigerians to voluntarily donate blood to save lives

The CMD of the National Hospital in Abuja stated this.

The Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Abuja, Bello Shehu, has appealed to Nigerians to cultivate the habit of voluntary donation of blood to save accident victims and other patients.

Mr. Shehu made the appeal in Abuja on Saturday at the monthly jogging of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

The doctor, who was the special guest at the exercise, said that the appeal became imperative as there could never be a time when there would be enough blood.

“We can never have enough blood in this country. There is not one place that we say we have enough but we should continue to encourage people to voluntarily go out and donate blood.

“People should voluntarily donate and help us to serve our fellow citizens, we may not know who they are, it could be anybody, ’’ he said.

Commenting on the rejection of accident victims by hospitals, Mr. Shehu said that relevant agencies of government, including FRSC, the police and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), were collaborating to address the issue.

“This issue comes up once in a while and they become an issue but the FRSC, police and NEMA, all of us are putting our heads together to make sure that becomes history.

“There will not be anything that impedes the treatment of accident victims,’’ he said.

Mr. Shehu said that efforts should be made to save life first while the issue of criminal background of a victim or patient, if at all there was any, could be sorted out.

Another guest at the exercise, Abigael Bozegha, the Chief Medical Director of the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), called for a law to address the problem of the sale of blood by hospitals.

Mrs. Bozegha said although processing of donated blood cost some money, there was a need for a law to check high prices being charged by some hospitals.

“When you donate blood, you have helped the person who is going to get it. The processing of that blood cost a little bit of money.

“The National Blood Transfusion Service on its own takes an access fee of N2, 000 per unit of blood.

“Although we are encouraging that a fee of N500 be added to the N2, 000 but again because there is no legal backing yet the hospitals want to charge whatever they like,’’ she said.

“The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive Officer of FRSC, Osita Chidoka, urged personnel of the commission to voluntarily donate blood to save the lives of accident of victims.

The theme of the exercise was “Promoting Road Traffic Crash through Blood Donation and Transfusion’’.

(NAN)