After several years of trying, the Health Ministry’s National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) is still striving to achieve 100 percent voluntary blood donation. This goal is, however, not a distant possibility.Dr. Julian AmsterdamThis is according to Director of Standards and Technical Services with responsibility for the NBTS, Dr. Julian Amsterdam. He recently disclosed that currently voluntary donation is very close to the sought after target.Dr. Amsterdam said that “we have been moving the mark up in our efforts to phase out the replacement donation. In 2013 we had initially looked at 89 per cent. In 2014 we tried to move that to 100 per cent. The last we’ve checked we were above 94 per cent.”While figures had suggested that the target might have been met, Dr. Amsterdam asserted that this could be questionable,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, since some persons are asked to be replacement donors when their hospitalised relatives are the recipients of blood. It could therefore be argued that replacement donors cannot be classified as voluntary donors.“There is a continued culture whenever a patient goes to a private hospital especially; they are advised to have a relative donate units of blood. However, in the true and technical sense what happens is that sometimes the relatives would come to donate, and when they discover that it is not a requirement to get units they still donate…so we will have to decide whether that is replacement donation or whether the relative is donating voluntarily,Cheap Jerseys Online,” said Dr. Amsterdam.In order to counter this situation he plans to encourage relatives to return to the Blood Bank at a time convenient to them in order to be classified as voluntary donors.The NBTS has over the years continually appealed for donors to give blood voluntarily to help save the lives of those in need.However, there have been recent allegations levelled against the institution that several donors were turned away. This state of affairs, according to Dr. Amsterdam, is being investigated. “I am not sure yet why the donors were turned away because I haven’t completed an investigation.? I have asked some of the staff to submit statements,” said Dr. Amsterdam of the on-going investigation.Dr. Amsterdam said that the NBTS has tremendous capacity to store blood. He added that the number of donors usually spike in the months of May and November. In fact he intimated that there have been occasions that the NBTS has been able to cater to a collection of as much as 600 units.“What we say to donors is ‘you come, we will process the units of blood’,” insisted Dr. Amsterdam.Persons desirous of giving blood are expected to undergo phases of screening. The initial segment,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, according to him, is verbal whereby potential donors are asked certain questions including their age, if they are on medication, or if they have a cough or cold, among others.“If somebody has a current cough, cold or fever that person cannot donate…if persons had a recent vaccination that person cannot donate. If somebody had an exposure or is at high risk for contracting a disease that can be transmitted through the blood, they cannot donate and if the person has multiple partners they too cannot donate,” said Dr. Amsterdam who stressed that these are some of the reasons that donations would have to be deferred.Also, persons with recent tattoos might have to wait until at least a year has elapsed before they can donate.“If a donor passes that initial screening what happens next,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, is that we have to test the units of blood but the initial screening is very important. That is why I have been working with the staff to ensure that we standardise that,” asserted Dr. Amsterdam. The blood is tested for a number of diseases including HIV, chagas and hepatitis.“It might seem monotonous but you must go through that screening and every single question and make sure those questions are answered,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys China,” the Blood Bank boss asserted as he underscored the need to urgently attain the goal of voluntary blood donation at the soonest possible time. “By having adequate stock it helps us to make sure that if a patient needs blood we will always have available…it will prevent relatives from feeling they have to donate even if they are ill and try to cheat the system. They don’t have to do that, and so we are also looking to phase out replacement donors and payment for donations,Cheap Stitched MLB Jerseys,” added Dr. Amsterdam.