National Blood Services Profile

Promotion of voluntary and non-remunerated blood donation nationwide

PNRC renders comprehensive blood services in accordance with the provisions of National Blood Services Act 1994 or Republic Act 7719 (the Act).

What PNRC Does
Blood Services are comprehensive that includes donor recruitment, collection, transportation and storage of blood, blood testing , processing and supply to the hospitals.

Donor Recruitment:
PNRC contributes more than one fourth of national blood requirement. PNRC recruits voluntary non-remunerated blood donors (VNRBD) by i) identifying donors groups from non-risk population, ii) writing and sending appeal letters to prospective donors, iii) follow up through telephone or meeting in person, iv) conducting peptalks, lectures/seminars, v)distribution of promotional materials. In coordination with RC Youth (members of 7-25 years of age), young members are encouraged to donate blood when they reach 18 years of age. Last year PNRC organised 1,307 donor recruitment sessions attended by 58,807 persons. The focus on repeat donors has improved the proportion of repeat donors quite significantly-76% of all donors last year.

Recognition of Donors:
PNRC has instituted different awards that are rewarded to the individuals and organisations contributing to VNRBD programme. Individuals are decorated with different type of Blood Galloners Club Awards depending on their services. These are:
Membership award (donating 4,000 cc)
Bronze Medal (donating 50 times or 12,500 cc whichever comes first)
Silver Medal (donating 75 times or 18,750 cc whichever comes first)
Gold Medal (donating 100 times or 25,000 cc whichever comes first)

Blood Collection:
More than 140,000 bags of bloods of different sizes were collected last year, more than half of which was from mobile units. Walk-in donors constituted about 11% o the donors.
Blood Testing: All units of blood are screened for malaria, syphilis, hepatitis B, HIV, and hepatitis C. ABO and Rh typing are routinely done. The tests reveal seropositivity rates as: i) malaria-0.004%, ii) syphilis-0.48%, iii) HbsAg-4.25%, iv) anti-HIV-0.00002%, and v) anti-HCV: 0.29%. All blood units found reactive or positive in any of the above mentioned disease screening tests are quarantined and retested. Blood units found reactive twice are labelled ‘not for transfusion-for confirmatory testing’ quarantined and then sent within 48 hours to appropriate centre for confirmatory testing.

Component Preparation:
Some of the PNRC Blood Centres have facility to divide blood into components using special equipment called refrigerated centrifuges. In 2004, 26% of whole blood collected were prepared into components.

Blood Supply:
PNRC has entered into an agreement with hospitals for the proper transportation and supply of blood. Other Services
National Blood Centre located at PNRC NHQ also operates as clinical laboratory for outpatients. PNRC also renders counseling services to the donors with sero-positive results, and refer to appropriate health facility for medical care if deemed necessary.

Sustainability
The costs of managing the comprehensive blood services are raised through different sources, main of which are:
Cost contribution by the consumers,
Cash donation from the government
(National lottery and local government units)
Some kits and reagents from the Ministry of Health and local government units
While these resources are currently adequate to operate the blood services, resources requirements will increase significantly to implement a goal of completely phasing out replacement donation by 2009.


© International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Any part of this document may be cited, copied, translated into other languages or adapted to meet local needs without prior permission from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, provided that the source is clearly stated.