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DHA opens a new blood donation site

Dr Laila Al Shaer, Director of the Dubai Blood Donation Centre (DBDC), said: “The move is in line with the authority’s expansion plans for blood collection within the Emirate and it also facilitates cooperation between the government entities.”

Al Shaer said the blood donation site will have a separate male and female room for blood collection and each room will have two beds. The staff on site will only collect blood and the collected blood will be sent to the main centre which is located in the premises of Latifa Hospital, twice a day, for checking, processing and storage.

“We have completed the process of staffing and installing the latest equipment at the blood collection site. Everything is in line as per international standards and next year; we will seek international accreditation for this blood donation site since our main centre is internationally accredited,” Al Shaer said,

Al Shaer added that every day the blood donation site will be open for seven hours, starting 9 am and the staff will cater to 20 donors per day. “We may extend the hours depending on the feedback of the community. We believe that such blood collection sites will be convenient for people living in the vicinity and for people who visit the GDRFA centre.”

She added that the authority also plans to have three more blood collection sites shortly. The sites will be located in Al Mankhool, Nad Al Hamar, and Dubai Hospital.

The new sites will operate from existing primary health care centres and/or hospitals under the DHA.

Al Shaer highlighted that the blood donation centre is the only and central blood donation centre for the Emirate of Dubai. It supplies blood and blood products to all private and governmental hospitals in the Emirate of Dubai; this includes over 27 private and government hospitals in Dubai.

The DBDC blood collects 50 per cent of the total blood collected in the UAE. Of this 45% of the blood is used for Thalassemia patients, who require regular blood transfusions, and 27% is used for Trauma patients.

“At the centre, we carry out more than 300 campaigns in a year to donate blood and we visit various governmental organizations, private sector groups etc. We have recently introduced our mobile blood donation unit, which has helped us double the blood collection at every drive,” Al Shaer said.

The DBDC cooperates with over 250 private and government institutions for blood donations. The minimum number of donors at a camp is 50 and the maximum is 200.

In terms of blood collection, Al Shaer said, the average annual whole blood collection for the centre is between 32,000 to 35,000 units per year and the average annual collection of blood products like apheresis platelets is 15,000 units.