Blood transfusion centre expected by next year in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A modern Regional Blood Transfusion Centre (RBC) being built in Islamabad is expected to be completed by next year.

The RBC in the ICT has been co-funded by the governments of Pakistan and Germany and is being built on land provided by the government. An amount of Rs50 million was set aside for the project in the last fiscal year (2016-17) of which Rs25 million has so far been released, officials said.

The centre will mobilise, recruit and retain voluntary blood donors, collect blood donations, process, screen, test, prepare components and store blood components.

The prepared components will be provided to hospital-based blood banks in Islamabad according to their needs while blood banks at hospitals would become patient-oriented units storing, distributing and testing the compatibility of blood apart from conducting haemo-vigilance, officials said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2017.