Associate Degree in Blood Transfusion Medicine

ABOUT

Pakistan has a broken blood transfusion system, which is demand-driven, fragmented and unregulated. Access to blood in most areas of Pakistan is poor, with the ensuing blood shortage enriching rampant blood mafias. A hepatitis infection rate of 7 - 10% is making an epidemic inevitable without intervention. This imminent crisis has been addressed by the Indus Hospital & Health Network through the implementation of the centralized blood banking system in The Indus Hospital Blood Center in Karachi, and also in the public sector under the public-private partnership with the Governments of Punjab and Sindh. By operating 3 Regional Blood Centers (RBCs) in Multan, Bahawalpur and Jamshoro, 14 connected hospital blood banks are collecting 185,000 blood donors annually. The network includes teaching hospitals like Nishter Hospital, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital, Civil Hospital Hyderabad, DHQ and THQ level hospitals, totaling 6,500 patient beds.

International blood banking guidelines have been implemented across all sites from blood donor selection, collection, component production, transfusion-transmitted infection testing, unit quarantine, verification and issue, serologic testing and quality assurance. In contrast to the practices in Pakistan, the cold chain of blood bags is maintained stringently from collection to delivery. The ready units are not given to the patient’s family, rather, these units are carried by trained blood distributors in cold chain boxes to the bedside with written receipts by the doctors. All four sites are identical state-of-the-art facilities which are ensuring the availability of safe blood of international quality to the most deprived population of Pakistan.