We cut back on blood donations but give away 4mil to blood imports

A series of scheduled blood donations are canceled one after another in order to save a few tens of thousands of euros. In the meantime and due to lack of reserves, our country imports 4mil euros' worth of blood from Switzerland.

Essential materials for collection of blood, such as pouches and syringes, are luxury items for most directorates of NHS Blood Units and the planned voluntary blood tests, which guarantee 50% of the reserves of the national blood bank, get canceled one after another throughout the country, keeping hostage patients needing transfusions and resulting in postponements of hundreds of surgeries.

It is estimated that about 2.000 units will be "lost" to one single hospital due to cancellations between July and September.

"Artery" islands are cut off from the blood donation system

This results from the program of voluntary blood sampling in Cyclades, submitted by the director of blood donation at the National General Hospital in Nikaia, to the hospital administration and the second DYPE of Piraeus and the Aegean.

Islands such as Mykonos, Andros, Sifnos and Naxos, which serve as basic "arteries" of our national blood donation system, are cut off with accelerated procedures by the head of the hospital. This is despite the fact that in the relevant documents, the director substantiates any requested venture indicating the exact amount of blood bags that were collected at each of the previous outings of the mobile unit of the hospital’s blood bank.
 

"Given the economic downturn of the hospital and because the subsidies are very few there is currently no possibility for blood ventures outside of Attica"; this is how Christos Ressos, director of the General Hospital of Nikaia, laconically justifies his decision.

The budgeted cost of the hospital’s Blood Division for the Cyclades was approximately 30.000 euros. Since the annual intake of 30,000 blood units from Switzerland costs around 4 million euros, one realizes how those in charge comprehend and implement planning for saving…
 
"This decision shows the dismissal of the effort of many years and of many people who worked on the development of voluntary blood donation. The impact will demonstrate itself with individuals who receive frequent transfusions and trauma patients, who constitute the bulk of the transfused population of our hospital along with the cardiac surgery patients of Onassio", replied the director of blood donations, Mrs Leontini Foundoulaki – Paparizou. Now, addressing the administrations of the National Blood Transfusion Centre and the 2nd DYPE, she is asking them "to secure the required blood units for smooth transfusions during the harsh summer months."

In her No. 124 / 07.05.2011 urgent communication Christina Papanikolaou, the chairman of the 2nd DYPE, moves to revoke the Nikaia hospital board’s decision and confirms that the financial requirements for the blood-collecting ventures from volunteer donors in the Cyclades will be covered financially. However, the approval of expenditure for these Blood Donation Unit ventures is still pending…