To have clean blood source...
We arrived at the Blood Transfusion Department (Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center) early on a Saturday afternoon, when the department had just received more than 500 units of blood from a voluntary blood donation activity at a university in the province. In a room of less than 25 square meters , machines were operating continuously to test and screen each unit of blood for pathogens, in order to select safe blood products.
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| Staff of the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center prepare for testing and screening of donated blood units. |
Carefully placing each blood sample on a tray to put into the testing machines, Bachelor Luong Thi Kim Chi said that in order to have a safe blood source stored at the center's blood bank, the steps from receiving, screening to preserving blood must be strictly implemented. The initial blood source received has been quickly tested, but this is only a necessary condition for people to be able to donate blood. After being received, donated blood must continue to go through many stages of screening using serological tests and molecular biological tests to test for genes of diseases such as: Hepatitis B, HIV, Hepatitis C, syphilis, malaria... Any blood units that are positive for diseases will have to be isolated and destroyed according to regulations of the Ministry of Health . Normally, the rate of infected blood accounts for about 3%. Therefore, this is a very important step to determine a safe blood source before providing it to medical facilities for transfusion to patients.
In the adjacent room, about 30 square meters wide, many specialized cabinets are neatly arranged, such as: a cabinet for unfiltered blood stored at 4.4 degrees Celsius; a cabinet for storing blood type O plasma at -27.9 degrees Celsius; a cabinet for blood type AB at -25 degrees Celsius... Here, 5 officers and employees of the department are busy performing the steps of separating, processing, and preserving blood. Blood samples with quality test results are put into a cold centrifuge by 2 officers of the center. At the next table, an officer separates red blood cells and plasma; another department handles the classification of products after the separation stage and puts them into specialized cabinets for each type.
According to Mr. Vo Song Khanh - Deputy Head of the Blood Transfusion Department, after testing and screening, blood preservation plays a very important role in ensuring the quality of the blood source. The maximum blood storage time is 42 days. Therefore, blood stored in specialized cabinets displays parameters for staff to monitor daily. "The first thing in blood preservation is to strictly adhere to the temperature. If the temperature fluctuates, the quality of the blood will decrease, affecting the health of the blood recipient... Therefore, monitoring the temperature in blood preservation refrigerators is extremely important to both ensure blood quality and not waste valuable donated blood units," said Mr. Khanh.
At 7 p.m., work just finished, everyone was exhausted, shaking off the stress to return home. Quickly changing clothes to go to her maternal grandparents' house to pick up her child, bachelor Dong Thi Toan said: "After the morning of receiving blood in the community, the members of the center divided their lunch time to start screening and classifying the blood in time. My child has been with my grandmother all day, so now I'm going to pick him up."
Ready to donate blood to save lives
At nearly 10am one day in mid-June, while we were sitting in the blood distribution room with Bachelor Ngo Thanh Luc, a request came from the emergency room of the Provincial General Hospital for a unit of platelets. Upon receiving the request, Bachelor Ngo Thanh Luc quickly reported to the leader, then called the person in charge of platelet donation volunteers to mobilize them to donate platelets for the emergency case. When the volunteer replied that he would arrive in 30 minutes, Bachelor Luc's face relaxed. "If the volunteer cannot arrive in time or in an emergency, we are always ready to donate blood. I am one of the people who regularly donate platelets for emergency cases. Up to now, I have donated more than 50 times," Bachelor Luc shared. Compared to blood donation, platelet donation requires higher standards, and the time to collect blood to produce platelets is also nearly 5 times longer.
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| Staff of the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center collect donated blood from volunteers. |
Recalling the first time he donated blood in an emergency at night to save a pregnant woman with blood type O in 2006, Bachelor Vo Song Khanh still remembers the feeling of saving a life from death. “The pregnant woman had hemorrhage and needed 6 units of blood. At that time, the hospital's blood reserve was not enough because there were other emergency cases. Relatives with the same blood type donated but there was still a shortage. Therefore, an obstetrician and I urgently donated blood to save the patient from critical condition,” Bachelor Khanh shared. It was also from that emergency blood donation that Bachelor Khanh realized the important role of blood storage, especially in emergency cases. Therefore, in 2009, when the Provincial Hematology - Blood Transfusion Center was established, Bachelor Khanh moved to work there.
As the ones who directly keep the blood drops to save people, more than anyone else, the officers and employees at the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center understand the value of donated blood drops. And they are always silently and willingly donating blood to save people. Currently, the center has 30 officers, civil servants and workers. Most of them have donated blood and platelets, the most donated more than 50 times.
Need a stable base to operate
The Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center is a public service unit under the Department of Health , temporarily assigned to use the facility on the 1st floor of Area E - Provincial General Hospital with an area of nearly 200m² to carry out activities. In the first year of operation, the target for receiving blood for the center was 7,000 units of blood/year; now it has increased to an average of 25,000 units of blood/year. However, the facilities are old and gradually degraded, not ensuring the conditions and area for operation.
In July 2024, the center was facilitated by the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Health to temporarily arrange the facility at 16 Hong Bang (Nha Trang City) as a centralized blood receiving point. Thanks to that, the center has more facilities to organize periodic blood receiving. In early 2025, the center was approved by the Department of Health for 91 specialized technical categories in hematology - blood transfusion and granted a license to operate medical examination and treatment. After being licensed for medical examination and treatment, the center has implemented free screening for hematological diseases for people. Currently, the center is coordinating with the Social Insurance of Region XXIV to complete procedures, implement medical examination and treatment and manage outpatient treatment of hematological diseases (congenital hemolytic anemia, iron deficiency anemia and other hematological diseases).
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| Store blood and blood products in specialized cabinets. |
According to the orientation of developing the Provincial General Hospital into a regional hospital, and at the same time, when the two provinces of Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa are merged into the new Khanh Hoa province, the demand for blood and blood products in the coming time will increase (about 32,700 units of blood/year). On the other hand, according to the results of monitoring and evaluating the capacity of hematology and blood transfusion centers nationwide, the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center is oriented by the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion to develop into the Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center of the Central Coast region.
According to the Ministry of Health's instructions, blood and blood products are a type of "special medicine" because they are special biological products that have not been artificially produced and must be taken directly from blood donors. Therefore, blood needs to be collected, screened, produced, extracted, stored and preserved strictly according to a continuous process; the quality of blood and blood products needs to be strictly controlled according to the GMP quality system. Although the center has received a lot of attention and support from the Provincial General Hospital, with an area of less than 200m², it does not meet the requirements for professional development; there is no guaranteed area to invest in cold storage to store and preserve large amounts of blood and blood products, so the blood source at the center is mainly stored in specialized refrigerators with a maximum capacity of no more than 1,500 units. This leads to the risk of blood shortage during peak periods. Meanwhile, the facility at 16 Hong Bang was temporarily assigned to the center by the Provincial People's Committee, but the legal basis has not been ensured, making it difficult to invest, repair, and maintain. Mr. Nguyen Duy Long - Deputy Director in charge of the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center said: "In the context of streamlining the political system, merging the commune and provincial levels to implement 2-level local government, the Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center has reported to the Department of Health to submit to competent authorities for consideration and officially assigning the center to stabilize and develop. The center hopes to soon invest in facilities; build a screening and testing system, production, and a cold storage system to store and preserve blood and blood products in large quantities, to ensure sufficient supply for medical facilities to perform emergency and patient treatment."
LY DUNG
Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/phong-su/202506/lang-tham-luu-giu-su-song-6371b27/
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