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The National Blood Transfusion Programme (NBTP), Ministry of Health, with technical support from GIZ, recently organized a 2-day Training Workshop in Islamabad on ‘Optimal Blood Bank Processes to Enhance Blood Safety’. The workshop was attended by Laboratory Technicians and Technologists from fifteen public and private hospital blood banks of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, six of which belong to a core group of 78 hospital blood banks to be refurbished in the ongoing blood transfusion system reform.
The Workshop was facilitated by Hans Molijn, an experienced Immuno-Haematologist from the Netherlands, Dr. Rafi Ahmed form GFA/GIZ, Usman Waheed form GFA/GIZ, Dr. Lubna Naseem Incharge BTS, PIMS Islamabad) and Dr. Noreen Saeed, Consultant Haematologist, Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi.
In order to assess the competence of all laboratory staff, a pre-training questionnaire about the topics was used which gave an overview of the level of competency of the trainees. At the end of the training the same questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact of the training. The workshop was organized to review and exchange experiences of the current practices in the blood banks and identify the constraints whereas to update the participants on some vital procedures used in the blood bank laboratory. The goal of the workshop was to develop an action plan under which newly enhanced knowledge would lead to a standardized laboratory practices.
In his opening remarks, Lundy Keo, Programme Manager Service Delivery of the GIZ Health Sector Support Programme, briefed about the German Government support to the safe blood transfusion project. Dr. Hasan Abbas Zaheer, National Programme Manager, NBTP gave a brief overview of the recent blood safety reforms in the country, based on a separation of production and transfusion functions. He introduced the concept of ‘regional blood centres’ which will supply blood to their affiliated hospital blood banks. Hospital blood banks will limit their function to storage, compatibility testing and distribution of blood within the hospital, but not collect and process blood any longer.
Hans Molijn provided an overview of the primary blood bank processes. He further informed the participants that it is important to keep in mind that the quality of the final product from the blood bank depends on several different factors such as SOPs, equipment, and reagents. He also presented the results of his visits to blood banks.
Paul Kohorst (Team Leader SBT Project) in his concluding remarks uttered his expectation that participants would become new ‘quality ambassadors’ and change agents in their respective environment. There had been many ‘take-home’ messages, with an Action Plan as one of the key outcome documents of the workshop. He appreciated participants’ active participation, their discipline and their attention shown up to the last moment. He thanked the Technical Cooperation Team, notably Hans Molijn, Dr. Rafi Ahmed, and Usman Waheed for conducting the workshop.
The workshop ended with certificate distribution among the participants and a vote of thanks by Dr. Hasan Abbas Zaheer, National Programme Manager, National Blood Transfusion Programme.