PRETORIA – The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) said blood stocks were running critically low across the disaster-struck KwaZulu Natal province and the situation was getting worse.
“Unfortunately, as of yesterday afternoon, we had to implement what we refer to as restrictive issue, which means that unless someone is actually bleeding to death, we are unable to supply all the blood that is being requested,” said SANBS medical director, Dr Karin van den Berg when speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Africa.
“If a doctor needs two or three units of blood, if it is not a dire emergency. (But it) has an impact on the patient care and it is not ideal. It often means people have to stay in a hospital longer which has a knock-on effect elsewhere.”
Following the worst floods in recorded history in KwaZulu-Natal, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday night declared a national state of disaster.
Ramaphosa said the natural disaster, which completely destroyed 4 000 homes in the province and killed over 400, had implications beyond KZN.
Van den Berg said the SANBS often collects considerable quantities of blood from KZN, but at the moment, the coastal province couldn’t sustain its own needs.
“When we have a situation like this, it means that we have to make sure that we are equitable in how we distribute our blood… KwaZulu Natal now is not sustainable so we need to send blood from all over the country to KwaZulu Natal. This has a knock-on impact on the rest of the country,” she said.
The process of sending blood to KwaZulu Natal is complex, considering the extensive infrastructural damage caused by the floods.
“It’s not easy, but SANBS has a really big logistics network and we have brilliant partners that assist us. So even with the natural disaster, as with the riots, we have found ways, very creative ways, to get the blood to where it needs to go.
“The biggest problem is that if we do not have enough blood, it doesn’t matter how creative we are; we do not have blood,” she said.
“We are urgently (looking for) people who haven’t donated blood before. We are really looking for new blood donors, and also people who have not donated recently. We are desperate for them to come and donate.”
IOL