Bamenda Regional Hospital launches appeal as blood bank runs dry

Authorities of the Bamenda regional hospital say the institution is in dire need of blood in it’s blood bank.

The staff of the hospital are preoccupied with the situation and are urging the population to donate blood to save lives of patients.

Dr. Ako Fidelis, chief of the blood bank at the Bamenda regional hospital regrets that the blood bank unit cannot meet the demand of its patients.

“For the past two weeks we have received over two hundred requests for blood but we have not been able to transfuse up to 70 units of blood. The blood bank is virtually empty”, Ako Fidelis lamented.

Though some people voluntarily donate blood, Ako Fidelis says the hospital can’t use it after going through all the test.

“We have been relying on our regular voluntary blood donors who make up about 20% of the donor population. We depend on the relatives of our patients who also form about a percentage of the blood donor population”, he said.

It should be noted that the Bamenda regional hospital blood bank doesn’t only meet the demand of its patients but rescues other health facilities with acute shortage of blood.

Since the escalation of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions, the hospital has faced difficulties getting people to donate blood to the health facility.

By Timfuchi Aaron