Blood donors now charging patients at Techiman Holy Family Hospital – Biomedical Scientist

Mr. Gariba Marwan Abdul-Rauf, Principal Biomedical Scientist at   the Techiman Holy Family Hospital in the Bono East Region has expressed worry over the commercialization of blood donations carried out by individuals at the hospital for patients.

He stated that some individual claiming to be intermediaries have been besieging the health facilities all the time to negotiate between donors and patients or family members   whose patients may need blood transfusion   and charge before donating blood without the consent of the hospital. 

Mr. Abdul-Rauf expressed the concern in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Techiman.

He observed that the situation was affecting the voluntary spirit exhibited by blood donors donating freely to the blood bank of the hospital. 

“People no longer want to offer by donating blood to the blood bank freely but prefer making negotiations themselves with demands from patients,” he said.

Mr. Abdul-Rauf said the hospital’s concern was much about the intermediaries who continued to surround the hospital continually to disrupt the voluntary activities of the donors and appealed to stakeholder to assist by throwing such people out from the hospital before things totally get out of hand. 

He called on stakeholder to intervene as a matter of urgency to critical look into the situation by finding ways of addressing the practice since the hospital could not operate effectively without adequate blood stored at the blood bank for emergency cases. 

According to Mr. Abdul-Rauf   the action by the go-betweens at the hospital was morally wrong as some could even charge ranging from GH¢300 to GH¢1, 000 depending on the units of blood donated. 

He said the middlemen have taken advantage of defrauding innocent people who come to the hospital to seek for treatment particularly those who may need blood transfusion.

Mr. Abdul-Rauf attributed the situation to the inadequate stock of blood at the blood bank at the facility and called on groups and individuals to help donate blood at the hospital for emergency cases.

Source: GNA

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