Wa, July 30, GNA – The Upper West Regional office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), has organised a blood donation exercise in Wa to help augment the bloodstock of the Regional Health Directorate.
The two-day exercise, on the theme “Donate Blood and Save Lives”, was held on July 28 and Thursday, July 29, 2021, with the staff of the FDA, GHS, and departments and agencies as well as selected Senior High Schools including Wa Technical Institute, Wa SHS and St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary taking part in the exercise.
Mr Albert Ankomah, the Upper West Regional Head of the FDA, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa on Friday said 148 pints of blood were donated and handed over to the Regional Health Directorate.
He said the FDA could not achieve its target of 200 pints of blood partly due to incessant rain on Wednesday and first and second-year students of the selected SHSs being on break.
He said 216 people turned up for the exercise but 148 people passed to donate the blood after the screening, adding that they were yet to carry out the exercise at the Wa Islamic SHS.
“The Food and Drugs Authority, as part of our Cooperate Social Responsibility, has been donating blood to augment the blood stocks in the blood banks in the region”, Mr Ankomah said.
Mr Alhassan Abdul Nasir, a Medical Laboratory Scientist at the Upper West Regional Hospital, commended the FDA for taking the initiative to support the regional blood bank and encouraged other organisations to emulate the good gesture as it was a life-saving intervention.
“The general public should voluntarily donate blood to save the lives of our pregnant women, the lives of our children under five who might be suffering from severe malaria, the lives of people who have had a road traffic accident, bled and seriously need blood to save their lives”, he indicated.
Mr Nasir stated that the regional hospital blood bank was in dire need of blood to meet the health needs of the clients as there were few units of blood in the region before the intervention of the FDA.
“What is even worrying is that these few units of blood belong to some specific patients … people normally come and donate blood when they have patients on admission or when they have pregnant women nearing delivery. The situation was very bad”, he added.
Mr Nasir also encouraged individuals to make voluntary blood donation a habit and said regular blood donors were issued with identity cards, which would enable them to be attended to when they needed blood at the facility for themselves or their relatives.
GNA