Half a year after its establishment, Baguio’s local blood council (LBC) is nearly out of blood, prompting the council to call upon the public to bolster its supplies.
As of this week, the Baguio LBC’s supply of blood for treatment has dwindled to “critical levels,” insufficient not only for emergencies but also for already-scheduled and queued patients in need of blood.
Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center’s (BGHMC) Blood Center personnel have reported that the available supply of blood is significantly below the current demand, with a low point of having two available bloodbags for a queue of 36 patients only last week. As of this week, the blood supply remains dire, with the available blood bank holding less than half of what’s needed.
The supply has to cover the city’s leukemia patients, dialysis patients, and severe dengue fever patients, who all need platelet injections to recover from their conditions, in addition to patients who need direct blood transfusions.
Platelets, which can only be acquired from fresh blood, are insufficient in quantity for the patient demand, necessitating the city’s use of platelet apheresis machines that extract significantly more platelets from donors than direct blood donation but costs as much as P15,000 per use.
With blood and platelet supplies being significantly below demand, the Baguio City Health Services Office (CHSO) is coordinating with barangay officials to develop a master list of donors in the city who can then be tapped to bolster the currently inadequate blood supply.
