New blood transfusion centres to be set up in province

Buildings for two centres completed in Bahawalpur, Multan.

LAHORE: Regional safe blood transfusion centres will be established in the Punjab with the assistance of the German government, Health Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik said on Tuesday.

He was chairing a meeting in connection with the Safe Blood Transfusion Service Project phase II at the Civil Secretariat.

“In the first phase, the buildings of regional blood centres in Bahawalpur and Multan have been completed. The German government is providing 2.3 million euros for the project through its development bank, the KFW,” he said.

The health secretary said that all modern blood screening and transfusion facilities would be provided at the centres. “Hospital-based blood banks will be linked with the regional centres,” he said.

The meeting was informed that the KFW had provided medical equipment for the two centres and the process of recruitment of the staff was underway.

In the second phase, two regional centres will be established in Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, they were informed.

Chief Planning Officer Abdul Haq Bhatti, KFW Consultant Dr Raza and Safe Blood Transfusion Islamabad Project Director Dr Amir Maqbool attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2014.