High demand for blood stock expected in December

High demand for blood stock expected in December

Another urgent call for blood donations is being made as the holiday season draws nearer.

SANBS
Steve Bhengu


The South African National Blood Services the country current blood stocks are at critically low levels.


Speaking at an event in Durban this morning, the blood service's Khulekani Zuma said they were desperately trying to increase stocks to meet high demand over the festive season - when there's a high number of road accidents and other emergencies.


"If anything major were to happen - we've only got blood supplies to supply the entire country for two and a half days. So that means that anything beyond that - we won't have blood. Recently, in the past week or two we had a crisis for blood and some hospitals had to halt some operations and prioritise which ones they're doing and which ones they cant do at the moment, because of the blood stocks. It's really important for us to push up our blood stock level to at least five days," he says.


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