DISASTER preparedness cannot begin only when the storm makes landfall, the earthquake strikes, the highway crashes happen or patients start arriving at emergency rooms. Neither should the search for blood.
This is why the call of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 6 for local governments across Western Visayas to integrate voluntary blood donation into their disaster preparedness and public health programs deserves more than another round of ceremonial bloodletting activities. It should compel every local government unit to recognize a fundamental truth: blood is disaster infrastructure.
One of the most critical resources during emergencies cannot be bought from a hardware supplier or manufactured overnight. Human blood must come from human donors — collected, screened and made available before the emergency occurs.
DILG-6 director Juan Jovian Ingeniero correctly described blood as an “irreplaceable life-saving resource” critically needed during disasters, medical emergencies, surgical procedures and other health incidents. He stressed that sufficient blood inventory contributes significantly to community preparedness and resilience before, during and after emergencies.
That distinction — before emergencies — matters.
When a major accident happens, when disaster produces multiple casualties, or when hospitals suddenly confront patients requiring urgent transfusions, it is already too late to begin building an adequate blood inventory. A desperate social-media appeal for donors may save lives, but desperation is not a disaster-preparedness strategy.
The numbers in Iloilo should sharpen the urgency. The Philippine Red Cross-Iloilo Chapter aims to collect 25,000 blood units this year, equivalent to at least one percent of the combined population of Iloilo City and Iloilo province. As of June, however, only more than 10,000 units had been collected.
That gap should concern local governments.
It does not necessarily mean disaster is imminent or that the existing blood supply is already critically insufficient; but it clearly shows that considerable work remains to reach the annual collection target. And blood demand does not wait for targets to be achieved. Patients requiring Packed Red Blood Cells, whole blood, platelet concentrate and Fresh Frozen Plasma need these products when their medical conditions demand them, not when enough donors finally become available.
This is precisely why blood donation must cease being treated merely as an occasional civic activity held during anniversaries, fiestas, government celebrations or special events.
Every province, city and municipality should have a sustained blood-donation program integrated into its health and disaster-risk reduction machinery. LGUs should establish regular schedules, mobilize barangays, government employees, schools, businesses and civic organizations, and forge permanent partnerships with the Philippine Red Cross and licensed blood service facilities.
There must also be a cultural change among citizens. We should stop thinking of blood donation only when somebody we know is lying in a hospital and relatives are frantically looking for donors. The strongest blood-donation system is one in which people voluntarily give while they are healthy so that blood is already waiting when an unknown patient suddenly needs it.
We stock food before hunger comes. We prepare evacuation centers before families are displaced. We maintain ambulances before patients need transport. We train rescuers before people need saving. We must collect blood with exactly the same foresight.
Because when catastrophe strikes and someone is bleeding on an operating table, there will be no comfort in knowing that a blood drive was scheduled for next week.
The blood must already be there.
