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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Leung Ka-lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (May 13):
Question:
On January 9 this year, the Hong Kong Red Cross (Red Cross) Blood Transfusion Service indicated on its web page that its blood inventories were persistently on the low side, standing at only 50% of its normal blood stock, and the average daily quantity of blood collected fell short of the average daily quantity of blood demanded by hospitals, which may affect blood supply and clinical transfusion treatment of patients. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the monthly number of blood donors in various districts in the past three years, with a breakdown by age group and gender;
(2) whether it knows the breakdown of the number of blood donors in the past three years by (i) blood donation venue/occasion (i.e. donor centres, blood donation centres of tertiary institutions, mobile donation vehicles and mobile donation activities) and (ii) number of previous donations (once, twice, thrice, four times, five times or above);
(3) whether it knows the average daily quantity of blood used by the specialties of various public and private hospitals in the past three years; and
(4) whether it has estimated the average daily quantity of blood demanded by the specialties of various public and private hospitals in the next three years; whether any long-term measures are in place to ensure that Red Cross has sufficient blood inventories in stock; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) has eight donor centres, four mobile teams and one mobile vehicle for collecting the blood donated by voluntary non-remunerated donors over the territory. The eight donor centres are distributed over various districts in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, including Causeway Bay, Central District, Mong Kok, Kwun Tong, King's Park (headquarters), Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Yuen Long. The mobile teams provide services for secondary schools, tertiary institutions, industrial and commercial organisations, government departments and community groups. The mobile vehicle is converted from a 40-foot container truck and is parked outside Tai Po Civic Centre on On Pong Road or at Fanling MTR Station.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) and (2) In the past three years, the overall number of blood donations has been increasing. The total number of blood donations are 244 594 (2012), 247 041 (2013) and 254 053 (2014). The monthly statistics of blood donations by venue, age group and gender are listed in Annexes 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Annex 4 sets out the number of donations that donors make in a year over the past 3 years.
(3) After BTS distributes the blood to hospitals, it will be stored at the blood banks for distribution to wards, operating theatres or ambulatory care centres according to the transfusion needs of patients based on clinical assessment. The BTS does not have the average number of the daily quantity of blood used by the specialties of various public and private hospitals. For reference, the use of red blood cells by major specialties of the hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) in the past three years is set out at Annex 5.
(4) The demand for blood supply is expected to be on a continuous rise as a result of an ageing population. The BTS is in urgent need of more dedicated citizens to donate blood to help maintain a stable and sufficient blood supply.
The BTS has embarked on various initiatives to secure more supply of blood. These include the enhancement of publicity to educate the public to save lives by donating blood, the establishment of campus blood donor centres in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the setting up of new blood collection venues. The BTS expects that the new West Kowloon Donor Centre can commence operation at the end of this year.
Moreover, large-scale blood donation activities are held by the BTS in collaboration with various institutions and organisations, such as HA, various disciplined services, uniform groups and community organisations, with a view to encouraging people to save lives by giving blood. The BTS also invites regular and deferred blood donors to donate blood again.
Ends/Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:21
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