BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 81, 5 August 1953, Page 4

BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE

THE meeting held last week in Taupo, and reported elsewhere in this issue, at which a committee was set up to secure blood donors to help keep pace with the growing needs of the blood transfusion seryice operat.ed by the Waikato Hospital Board, is yef another sign of the striking progress of the town. That thirty volun+eers s'hould be immediately forthcoming for such a service is af least as important a fact in the life of a modern community as the erection of new shops. The blood transfusion service of the Waikato Hospital Board, in whose district Taupo is situated, is the fourth largest in New Zealand, being placed after Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The technique of blood transfusion i 1 1 ustrates one of the great advances in medi-cal practrce made in recent times, and its immense value is sufficiently well known to render emphasis thereon unnecessary. That there exists a growing need for addi+ional volunteers for blood donor service may not be so generally realised, and the sefting up of the Taupo Committee will draw attention to that need. The reasons for the increased use of blood can be set down as the more complicated and extensive operafions which can be carried out nowadays, but whtch are only possible with the use of blood. Its use in anaemic patients is also of great value. And the use of wef plasma, cne pint of which is prepared from approximately two pints of blood, in cases where there is shock without blood loss, is another reason for the increasing demand. The demand for blood is indicated by the fact that in 1 950 the amount collected by the Waikato Board at Hamilton was 1058

pints, while in the year ended 3 I sf March last 2242 pints were collected. Of this total 503 pihts was obfained in Hamilton itself, and from smaller centres amounts such as Otorohanga 66 pints, Pukeatua 33 pints, Ngaruawahia 45 pints, Putaruru 82 pints, Orini 19 pints. The number of pints given as whole blood to Waikato Hospital patients was 168! pints, 36! pints were turned irito plasma, and 79 pints were sent to Rotorua Hospital. The apparatus used in the co!lection of blood has been carefuliy planned so that it is readily portable, and the organisafion is such that the mobile unit is ready to commence work within fifteen minutes of arriving af a collection point, and the time a donor wil! require to spend at the clinic is not more than fifteen minutes, and as attendance can be arranged for a definite time there is little interruption to a donor's routine. At the present time the average number of attendances of each donor per year is less than two. The donors come from a i ! walks of life, and include both pakeha and Maori Volunteers. As is mentioned in our repprt of the recent meeting, some seventy donors are required in Taupo, of which some thirty have already handed in their names* There shouid be no great difficulty in the Committee obtaining the number required, now the matter has been brought to the notice of the people. It is a type of service to one's fellows the value of which is very great, the giving of which is not difficuit. And it may be given freely without hardship or danger of any sort by any normally healthy person.