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Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
National blood stocks are under threat as representatives of blood donors and National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) continue squabbling over issues of corporate governance, among others.

NBSZ spokesperson Ms Esther Massundah said the country is sitting on stocks enough to cover only one-and-a-half days, particularly for the O blood group. Fifty percent of Zimbabweans carry blood group O. According to Ms Massundah, stocks for other blood groups were at two-and-a-half days on average.

“The situation is critical only in Harare and Mashonaland provinces. Intense efforts are, however, ongoing to re-boost the blood bank, with a number of blood drives lined up, starting from November 20,” said Ms Massundah.

Ideally, the blood bank is usually stocked with blood adequate for at least five days. Some patients who spoke to The Herald testified that the shortages were real and they were contributing to corruption within health institutions, with patients having to buy blood through the back door.

A cancer patient, who spoke on condition of anonymity from a major referral hospital in Harare, said she required six pints of blood, but was told that it costs $115 per pint, of which her blood group O was not in stock.

“The nurses, however, told me that waiting for Government stocks to be replenished could take longer as my condition was critical,” said the patient.

She said the nurse offered to sell her blood left behind by other patients who would have been discharged at $80 per pint.

“Initially, I was afraid to buy the blood, concerned that it might not have passed through all necessary checks, but my relatives within the nursing fraternity assured me that it was the same blood, except that nurses where taking advantage because it was in short supply,” added the patient.

These developments come at a time when some blood donors have also threatened to stop donating blood if the board continues to refuse to respond to their demands, a situation that raises more concern as the country approaches the festive season – a period that traditionally demands more blood.

In a recent petition addressed to NBSZ, Ministry of Health and Child Care and renowned practitioner and blood donor Mr Rodgers Matsikidze, who spilled the beans on alleged misgovernance at the organisation, said blood donors demanded an emergency general meeting (EGM) to solve the impasse between them and their board.

“We, the undersigned, in terms of Section 10 and 11, as read with Section 12 of the Articles of Association of the NBSZ, do hereby request an extraordinary general meeting. We request that the meeting be held on November 24, 2017 or anytime sooner as allowed in terms of the Articles of Association,” reads part of the petition.

According to the petition, the agenda of the EGM is to move a motion to turn the institution into an authority under Government, to discuss ways of further reducing the cost of blood and trimming of the current board from 19 members to seven members. The meeting also seeks to pass a vote of no confidence in the current board, whose chairperson has been at the helm since 1977.

Mr Matsikidze has since come up with a proposed Bill on blood control and transfusion, which seeks to bring the authority under Government. Another blood donor from Masvingo, Mr Nkulumani Mlambo, said they were concerned with reports that the board was planning to block the EGM from taking place. But NBSZ chairman, retired Justice Lesley Smith, dismissed allegations of blocking the EGM.