Blood bank decries power cuts

Charmaine Brown Herald Reporter
THE National Blood Service of Zimbabwe (NBSZ) is engaging ZESA Holdings over the power situation which is negatively affecting operations at the blood bank.

In an interview with The Herald, NBSZ public affairs manager Ms Esther Massundah said the blood bank had not been spared by the prevailing power shortages and if the situation continued they will be forced to throw away large quantities of blood.

“The power situation is negatively affecting the operations at the blood bank and if the situation continues unabated, the organisation will be forced to dispose of and burn tonnes of blood since it will not be safe for transfusion,” she said.

“The urgent appeal is for ZESA to prioritise the NBSZ blood bank because we face a number of challenges in terms of the products that we use in most of our operations need power. When there are power cuts it means there will be delays in certain procedures, such as operations.

Ms Massundah said there was an urgent need to invest in different forms of alternative energy sources such as solar so that the blood bank’s workflow is not disrupted.

“The power (during load-shedding) is not powerful enough to sustain our machines. This is also leading to us investing quite a lot of money in terms of fuel because for our generators, which is not sustainable for us,” she said.

“NBSZ is appealing to people who would want to partner the blood bank in investing in different forms of energy, such as solar, which are cost effective so that our operations are not disrupted.”

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