By Babalola Seyi
The Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service (LSBTS) organized a stakeholder meeting with civil society organisations in the state to enlighten them more about the awareness of the processes involved in blood safety and how people can get involved in donations of blood for the safety of citizens.
The event took place at the LCCI event hall, Alausa Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of Lagos State Blood Transfusion service, Dr. Bodunrin Ibitola Osikomaiya stated the need and awareness for people to be involved in blood donations.
Osikomaiya said that Lagos citizens need to be aware of the processes that are involved in blood safety and also how to commence automation in blood banking services.
She talked about how Lagos residents can access blood transfusion and what they will use in identifying the blood for authentication.
“We donate blood at any of our 27 General hospitals/Lagos State University Teaching hospitals; you can donate blood at any of the three Lagos State blood transfusion centres. You can also donate blood at some of the private blood bank hospitals; some of them are licensed to donate blood.
“You will see the logo of Lagos State transfusion centre allowing donation services in the private blood bank. So you can also have blood from different 27 public hospitals, they also have blood bank centres and we have 121 licensed private blood banks that can be licensed.
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“So once you get there, you will see Lagos State logos at those centres. When it is time for you to donate your blood, look at the blood bag behind the blood bag there is a Lagos State Logo there. If it is blood it is coloured in red if it is a platelet concentrate the colour is blue if it is fresh frozen plasma the logo is yellow, those are the signs that show that the blood has been well prepared, screened, and appropriate for transfusion, she stated.
The Executive Secretary also emphasised the collaboration of the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service with the Civil Society Organisation, and how they can come in to orientate Lagos citizens.
“The Civil society organisations will help to do a lot of advocacy on Blood donation, they will reach out to their members, reach out to the grass-root to let them know that it is good to get blood, the advantages of blood donation, they will also give us a feedback from the community for service improvement.
“So there are many things we do not know that is happening but because they have the direct contact from people that receive blood as well as people that give blood. They can give us feedback on what is happening and this will also help service improvement.”
The head of monitoring and reimbursement, Lagos State blood transfusion service, Dr. Alori talked about the measure the organization is taking to ensure that people access quality blood and how there is no point of mismanagement in the sector as regards voluntary blood donation.
“Firstly, blood is collected most especially from voluntary non-reminented blood donors and this blood is considered to be one of the safest and when after collections this blood are screened for transmission transmissible infections and most of these are hepatitis B, c, HIV and syphilis.
“After they are stored in the blood bank and it is accessible as at when due when it is needed the doctor will prescribe it and people come to the blood bank and when it is store in the blood bank they are release for transfusion and after transfusion, we also monitor if there is any effect which is properly called Haemovigilance and this part of the process put in place to ensure that the blood that is transmitted is safe.”
He urged Lagos residents to always donate blood whenever they have the opportunity in other to save people’s lives.
“Blood is very important that everyone is involved in the attitude of donating blood voluntarily. The blood that is donated voluntarily a single can save more than three or more lives when the blood process is put in place, he said.
The Executive Director for the Centre for 21st-century issues, a civil society organization, Ms. Titilope Akosa, also talked about how her organizations is collaborating with the Lagos State Blood Transmission service and how they intend to ensure their mandate of the Lagos State blood transmission service is meant.
“Our role in the society is to interface with the government and the people and to ensure that we raise a lot of awareness about what government is doing in such a way that the people will understand it and they will know what government is doing and benefit them.
“So for blood transfusion, we know blood is very important and when people have an accident here and there they might need a blood transfusion at a different point and that is the reason why Lagos State blood transfusion is set up so that at any point that citizens of Lagos need blood for any reason there is a one-stop-shop where they can get that done.
“And so for us as a civil society, it is important for us to understand this process, how is blood collected? How is it screened? And how is the services rendered to people? We don’t want a situation whereby citizens need blood and they get to Lagos State blood transfusion they can’t find it, you know what that means, people could die, so for us, at civil society, it is very important for us to monitor what Lagos State blood transfusion are doing to ensure that whatever they are doing they are serving the people the way they ought to be served and to make an impact in the lives of the people.”