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Hospitals in Uganda cancel operations due to blood shortage
Government urged to increase funding as hospitals are forced to cancel operations and health ministry launches push for donors
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The blood bank officials in the capital Kampala have reported that they are left with only about 100 units of blood, ten times lower than the thousand-plus units required every day.
Nationally, Uganda needs at least 340,000 units of safe blood annually, but usually only collects 200,000 a year.
A six-day countrywide blood collection drive was launched by the ministry on Monday.
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The Uganda Medical Association, an umbrella organisation of doctors in public health facilities, said the shortage was “almost [at] crisis level”, resulting in the cancellation of hospital operationsand prioritisation of cases.
Mukuzi Muhereza, the association’s secretary-general, said: “It’s a big, nationwide problem. It’s emergency level, a crisis. Nearly every hospital is crying [out] for blood. Nearly every regional referral hospital is complaining about blood.”
An extra 7 billion shillings (£1.4m) is needed to procure donor and testing kits, and to fund blood donation drives, to get the service back on track for the next six months.
The head of the Ugandan Medical Association Dr Mukuzi Muhereza confirmed that hospitals are being compelled to cancel operations due to the blood shortage which puts the lives of patients at risk.
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The Minister for Health, Sarah Opendi said extra money had been requested to get the blood transfusion back on track, but that it was up to people throughout the country to become blood donors.
Last year, 14bn shillings was allocated to the national blood transfusion service and national medical stores. At least 21bn shillings was required, however. The health budget has been cut from 1,850tn shillings in the current financial year to 1,714tn in 2018-19.
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