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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, February 16, 2017
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ILOILO City – One of the reasons why Ilonggos are not keen on donating blood to the Philippine Red Cross is perhaps the perceived difficulty of sourcing blood from the agency when the need arises.
But according to the Red Cross – Western Visayas Regional Blood Center, the supposed difficulty is a misconception.
The only requirement is the official blood request from the patient’s hospital or a referral slip from the mayor, clarified Dr. Dennis Roy Pasadilla, blood center manager.
If the processing fee is shouldered by the Iloilo provincial government, a certificate of indigency must be submitted, he added.
Some Iloilo mayors claimed it was easy to deal with Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) than Red Cross. This was why instead of coordinating with Red Cross for their bloodletting activities, they link up with WVMC, they said.
According to Pasadilla, those with referrals from the mayors are not being charged with anything by Red Cross.
Non-government organizations that have bloodletting activities in coordination with Red Cross may also issue referrals, he added.
However, those who have the official blood request from the patient’s hospital must pay the standard processing fee and bring a blood donor.
“It’s so easy to secure blood from our blood center. Those why say it is difficult are perhaps not familiar with our system,” said Pasadilla.
PROCESSING FEES
He also clarified that the processing fee being collected from those who do not have referrals is mandated by the Department of Health (DOH).
The processing fee depends on the kind of blood being sought. These are the following:
* for whole blood – P1,800
* for red blood cells – P1,500
* for fresh frozen plasma – P1, 000.
“These processing fees of Red Cross are uniform throughout the country. There are no other fees being collected other than these sanctioned by DOH,” said Pasadilla.
Some mayors claimed fees collected from those securing blood from WVMC were much lower. Pasadilla said this may be due to government subsidy.
“WVMC is a government hospital. It could also be because the hospital’s equipments are not as expensive as those of Red Cross,” he added.
Pasadilla also said blood collected by the WVMC blood bank is only for WVMC patients.
NETWORK WITH HOSPITALS
Because Red Cross caters to all, Red Cross is networking with hospitals, said Pasadilla.
In Iloilo, Red Cross entered into a memorandum of agreement with the provincial government and 12 district hospitals.
All the blood supply of the district hospitals are from Red Cross, said Pasadilla.
This also the main reason why Red Cross hopes to achieve its minimum target donation from the province – one percent of Iloilo’s over a million population.
“If we can hit our target, we can already serve the blood needs of Iloilo patients,” said Pasadilla.
Less than one percent of Iloilo’s population donated blood in 2016, data from Red Cross – Western Visayas Regional Blood Center showed.
The province has a population of 1,972,958. Red Cross would have wanted 19,730 Ilonggos to donate blood.
Last year, however, only 3,765 or 0.19 percent of the total population donated blood.
Again, Pasadilla appealed for more blood donors.
Because the need for blood for many complex medical and surgical procedures is constant, donations must be steady, too, to ensure supply in Red Cross’ blood bank. Red Cross data, however, showed none of the 43 local government units in the province was able to reach the one percent blood donors target.
According to Pasadilla, during “lean months” – months that Red Cross blood center’s blood supply is low – those securing blood are being required to bring with them donors to replenish the agency’s supply, even those that have certificates of indigency or referral from the provincial capitol./PN
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