A number of hospitals across the country are experiencing blood shortages resulting from the closure of education institutions and COVID-19 induced lockdown.
To mitigate the blood shortage, The Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS) wants over Shs20bn.
Appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee to present their assessment of the impact of Covid-19 on blood donation, UBTS Executive Director UBTS Dorothy Byabazaire said the Shs20bn will cater for calling and mobilizing of blood donors, recruitment of volunteers to support blood collection and vehicles for transporting staff for blood collection.
Other items include purchasing safety equipment for staff and donors, buying items for motivating donors, recruitment of critical staff and additional blood processing equipment among others.
Byabazaire noted that the coronavirus pandemic has had a great impact on blood collection as the donors are scarce and have to be looked for deep in their villages.
She told the committee that since July 2019 to June 2020, UBTS collected 288,663 units of blood against a target of 300,000 units but from April 2020 to date only 56,850 units of blood have been collected against a target of 75,000 units.
This calls strategies on how best the blood can be collected from the donors during this pandemic, she said.
