BY D KASULE (Trainee): The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, has revealed that the government is in preparations to present a law governing blood transfusions services in the country. She expressed concern over the fact that Uganda is among the many countries which do not have rules and regulations governing blood transfusion services.
Aceng said the lack of a law regulating blood transfusion is a hindrance to the quality of the services. She was speaking at the launch of the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion congress to be hosted by Uganda next year.
Although Uganda has experts in blood transfusion, the minister noted that all the specialists have been very silent and now is the time to come up and save the situation. “Am just realizing now that Uganda has a lot of blood transfusion specialists. Where have you been all along? You need to come up now and we develop this because a lot is going on,” Aceng said.
Aceng added there were attempts to incorporate the blood transfusion Bill with another Bill but later they found it unnecessary. However, that did not remove the fact that there is no regulatory document to handle issues like the sale of blood by medical workers, its availability, and safety in all the country’s regions.
“There was an attempt to put it in the tissue transplant bill which will soon be signed into an act but we saw it could not fit there”. Minister Aceng stated.
Dr Dorothy Kyeyune Byabazaire, the Executive Director of Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS) said that Uganda will next year host the blood transfusion congress for the first time.
UBTS is a department in the ministry of health, which is responsible for blood services in the country. It is mandated to make available safe and adequate quantities of blood and its components to all hospitals in the country.
Kyeyune explained that the upcoming congress will address the issues of quality of service in blood transfusion, regulatory challenges, and the sustainability of the service quality in Africa, including Uganda.
“We hope this congress is going to address the issues of blood transfusion services in Africa, the challenges, the innovations, and how we are going to sustain blood services in Africa. Because there are many challenges, the regulatory challenges, and governance challenges,” Kyeyune said.
Kyeyune explained that they have embarked on the process of putting up a law that governs blood services in Uganda, and it will address the many unanswered questions regarding the collection, storage, and management of blood.