PHUKET: Vachira Phuket Hospital in conjunction with the Phuket Red Cross and Phuket office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports held the ‘3rd Phuket Blood Donation Drive’ yesterday to help support much-needed blood stocks, with special focus on Rh-negative blood.
Boonwandee Woonciew, wife of current Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew and President of the Phuket Chapter of the Red Cross Society of Thailand, praised the event held at the Limelight Avenue shopping centre in Phuket Town, and praised the turnout of donors
“The tourism situation in Phuket is steadily improving. Many Thai and foreign tourists are traveling to Phuket, and all sectors are working together to make Phuket return to its bright future and the 3rd Phuket Blood Donation Drive project is another collaboration to promote the potential of medical treatment in the Phuket area,” Mrs Boonwandee said.
“The fact that all sectors are working together to push forward good projects to campaign for blood donation so that there is enough to treat patients both in the event of an accident and other illnesses will build confidence and demonstrate the potential of Phuket as a safe and ready tourist destination in all aspects,”she added.
Piyanart Sakulpipat, Deputy Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital, noted that blood reserves are used not only for Phuket residents and tourists, but also for patients from other provinces brought to Phuket for medical treatment.
Vachira Phuket Hospital uses about 33,000 units of blood a year, of which about 77% is used for general treatment and, and the remaining 23% used for providing treatment to road accident victims.
However, in her breakdown of units of blood used, Ms Piyanart gave a total of 37,000 units of blood used by Vachira Phuket Hospital per year: about 9,000 units for heart surgery; about 7,000 units for other surgeries such as brain and bone surgery; about 6,000 units for treating blood diseases; about 7,000 units for treating kidney disease; about 2,000 units for treating gastrointestinal bleeding; and about 6,000 units used for other treatments.
“The demand for blood continues throughout the year, and the need is increasing, especially the need for Rh-negative blood, which is still a significant problem,” Ms Piyanart said.
“There is a very small number of Thai people with this special blood group, only three people in 1,000, or 0.3%. Special blood groups are more common among people in Europe, where about 15% of people have them,” she said.
“Therefore, there is often a problem of insufficient supply of special blood groups and we are not meeting the needs of patients,” Ms Piyanart added.
“Already this year there have been more than 60 patients in this special group, and a need for more than 200 units of this type of blood, that is why we are holding this 3rd Phuket Blood Donation Drive project, to campaign for more blood donations, especially of rare special blood groups.
“The first special blood donation drive [in November last year] received a total of 166 units of blood, of which 27 units were Rh-negative, and the second donation drive [earlier this year] received a total of 117 units of blood, of which 19 units were Rh-negative,” Ms Piyanart explained.
“This means we have sufficient reserve blood for patient care, whether the patients are Thai or foreign, or from Phuket or neighboring provinces,” she noted.
Ms Piyanart invited people to make blood donations at the blood bank located on the fourth floor of the outpatient building at Vachira Phuket Hospital. People were urged to call 076-361234 ext. 1285 or email [email protected] for more information.
Vachira Phuket Hospital will be holding a special blood donation drive this Saturday (Aug 12), as is tradition each year to commemorate MOther’s Day in Thailand.
