Health Minister Sindh, Dr. Sikandar Ali Mandhro alongwith Secretary Health Sindh, Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho and KfW Country Director, Wolfgang Moellers inaugurated a state-of-the-art Regional Blood Centre in Sukkur established by the German Government at a Ceremony held recently at Sukkur. KfW Germany Officials including Ms. Stefanie Peters, Senior Project Manager KfW for Asia; Dr. Nachtnebel Mathias Technical Expert from Germany; Dr. Masuma Zaidi , KfW Health Coordinator, Rehan Baloch, Additional Secretary Health, Prof. Hasan Abbas Zaheer, National Coordinator SBTP Dr. Zahid Hasan Ansari, Sindh SBT Manager, Awais Qadir Shah, MPA, Arsalan Islam Shaikh, Mayor Sukkur, Zahid Mahmood, Team Leader, EPOS, MS/DMS and senior doctors from Civil Hospital, Sukkur were also present on the occasion.
The Sukkur Blood Centre is among the 10 RBCs developed with the grant from Germany through KfW as part of the establishment of a nationwide network of 10 modern blood centers and up-gradation of 59 existing hospital-based blood banks all over the country in the first phase of the Safe Blood Transfusion Project (SBTP).
Speaking on the occasion, Health Minister expressed his gratitude to the German Government for the gift of a Blood Center to the people of the Sindh. He appreciated Germen delegation and acknowledged Prof. Hasan Zaheer for his leadership and commitment in steering the Blood Project with exemplary zeal and devotion. He assured his committed and support for the smooth functioning of the new centre and the implementation of the Blood Programme in the province. He also promised to operationalise the remaining three RBCs of Nawabshah, Jamshoro and Karachi as soon as possible. Furthermore, he said that to achieve the quality standard and ensure supply safe blood, the management of the Sukkur RBC is out-sourced to Sukkur Blood and Drug Donating Society and Jamshoro to the Indus Hospital under the private-public partnership.
Mr. Wolfgang Moellers congratulated the minister, health secretary for their keen interest in the implementation of the project in the province. He termed the Safe Blood Transfusion Project a “success story” and appreciated the untiring efforts of the federal and provincial governments in making the project a success. He hoped that this Centre will herald a new era of blood safety for the people of Sindh.
He informed that the German Government through KfW, has contributed 25 million Euros (Rs 3.3 billion) to support the blood safety reforms initiated by all the provinces/federating units of Pakistan. Out of 3.3 billion, Sindh received about Rs.687 million. He also urged the Sindh government to immediately operationalise the RBCs of Nawabshah, Jamshoro and Karachi.
Health Secretary, Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho thanked the German government and KfW for supporting the safe blood project in Sindh and assured full operationalisation of all the four regional centres and promotion of voluntary donations.
Dr. Zahid H. Ansari, Provincial Blood Programme Manager informed that the Sukkur Regional Blood Centre will serve as blood procurement and distribution center ensuring quality systems to regulate all activities of blood banking. The Sukkur Blood Centre is one of the 10 Regional Blood Centers developed by the German government as part of the establishment of a nationwide network of 10 modern blood centres in the first phase of the Safe Blood Transfusion Project. The second phase of the Project has now started in which the scope and coverage will be expanded with continued Germen support.
