The Hoima West Member of Parliament, Hon. Joseph Ruyonga has called on government to urgently provide funds for blood collection supplies which he said were out of stock.
Raising on a matter of national importance, Ruyonga said he was afraid the country would run short of blood if the shortage of blood collection supplies at National Medical Stores (NMS) is not addressed.
“My prayer is that government provides money to the tune of Shs9 billion to allow Uganda Blood Transfusion Services collect more blood because from May 2023 there will be no supplies,” Ruyonga said.
He said that basing on the World Health Organization (WHO) report, Uganda is collecting less units of blood compared to the country’s target.
“With a population of 45.7 million people and the refugee community, we expect 473,000 units of blood but this year the resource envelope allocated for collecting blood was only for 300,000 units,” Ruyonga said.
According to the World Health Organization’s Global Database on Blood Safety, a country should be able to collect blood equivalent to 1% of its population. Uganda has an estimated population of about 46 million but collects far below the required amount
The State Minister for Primary Health Care, Hon. Margaret Muhanga said the ministry is working towards scaling up blood collection.
“We are scaling up the collection of blood to have enough in our blood bank; we sometimes drum up support for people to come and donate but when they donate it is not enough; remember we have people who cannot donate blood,” Muhanga said.
Tayebwa directed the Chairperson of the Heath Committee to consider the situation as the committee considers the sector budget for Financial Year 2023/2024.
This predicament can be traced back to the woes of Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS).
Budget estimates indicate that its resource envelope has been slashed from Shs23.657b this financial year to Shs21.899b for FY2023/2024.
UBTS’ budget framework paper for FY2023/2024 prioritises filling up staffing gaps, procuring new blood donation vehicles, and boosting activities in the eight regional blood banks.
Uganda has regional blood banks in Arua, Mbale, Gulu, Lira, Nakasero, Masaka, Mbarara, and Fort Portal. These are supported by nine blood collection centres in Hoima, Masaka, Kabale, Rukungiri, Jinja, Soroti, Mengo and Moroto.