The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
THE National Blood Services of Zimbabwe (NBSZ) is owed more than $2 million by Government and private hospitals in unpaid blood and blood products supplies, NBSZ public affairs manager Ms Esther Massundah has said. In an interview on Friday, Ms Massundah said her organisation had handed over owing private hospitals to
debt collectors.
For Government hospitals, she said, NBSZ had engaged the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health and Child Care to assist in liquidating the debt.
The hospitals fail to pay for blood supplies despite most of them demanding cash upfront from patients who need blood.
Government hospitals constitute 80 percent of NBSZ’s clients. The organisation supplies blood and blood products to 46 Government, 14 mission and 35 private hospitals across the country. Ms Massundah said the debt which dates back to 2009 was crippling the organisation’s operations. She was, however, not at liberty to name which hospitals owed and how much each institution was owing NBSZ.
“NBSZ is owed $2 123 031 by Government and private and health institutions dating back to 2009. Due to failure by hospitals to pay for our products the service is failing to recapitalise and procure critical items for our operations. We have engaged the Ministry of Health and Child Care to assist in liquidating the debt and for private hospitals we have engaged debt collectors. The Ministry of Health is also assisting in identifying other avenues of funding,” she said.
In 2012 NBSZ stopped giving blood and blood products to hospitals on credit when the debt stood at $1,6 million, a move that saw the debt being reduced to about $1 million in about six months. As at the end of February this year the country was left with one week supply of the most common blood type — blood group O.
Earlier in the year, NBSZ made a public appeal for people in blood group O to make donations as supplies were critically low and a threat in the event of emergencies. An estimated half of the country’s population is in blood group O. A blood group O donor can donate their blood to any other blood group but can only get blood from an O blood group donor.
Ms Massundah said her organisation would, this year embark on fundraising activities aimed at raising funds to sustain their operations. She said an aggressive awareness campaign will also be held to encourage people to donate blood. This year’s World Blood Donor Day, she said, will also put more emphasis on awareness and the need to become a regular blood donor.
“We have lined up a series of awareness campaigns countrywide and will continue with donor education to encourage people to donate blood. We also have various activities with different partners that will assist in growing the NBSZ brand.
“We are also looking at corporate blood drives, blood drives with Faith Based Organisations and different sectors. We will also visit universities and other tertiary institutions,” she said.
Ms Massundah added that NBSZ, in their campaigns, will be targeting adults between the ages of 30-65, encouraging them to donate blood. This comes against a background of statistics that show that the age group contributes a paltry 20 percent of the national blood stocks while consuming 80 percent of the same. School children who are the least consumers of blood, through transfusion, contribute 75 percent of the national blood stocks, while pledge 25 club — a group of youths who pledge to donate blood 25 times in their lifetime, contribute the remainder of 15 percent.
