By: Nyima Sillah
Competent sources at the Kanifing General Hospital have spoken of an alleged practice of sale of banked blood to patients.
Sources said the hospital’s blood bank is being used by hospital staff to make money though this report was brushed aside by the hospital’s administrator and a senior health official.
According to our sources, money has been changing hands between those unable to find blood donors and some hospital staff.
“When a patient is admitted and needs four or two drips of blood, it becomes an emergency. So, they call your family members to donate blood and those, who cannot find the right blood match, are told to go to the lab. This is where the problem is as some laboratory technicians will ask for a fixed amount of money or any amount of money to enable family members to get blood,” our source in the inner circle of the hospital said.
The source emphasized that blood at the hospital’s blood bank is not for sale as it’s banked for emergencies and cases in which the patients could not find anyone to donate blood.
One of our sources said the hospital used to conduct blood donation drives years ago but lamented that voluntary donation of blood has become a rarity at the health facility.
“But that [voluntary donation] rarely happens now. When you go to the lab for blood, some health workers will ask you to pay a fixed amount of money while others will ask you to pay a form of compensation,” the source revealed.
Doctors have also been accused of making monetary demands for blood in cases of operations.
“Even doctors ask family members of patients, who require blood for operations, to pay a certain amount of money for blood at the blood bank. Doctors will then go to the blood bank to take blood stored there for a long time or just for a few weeks,” another source said.
Sources said some hospital staff were selling blood already earmarked for some patients.
One of the sources alleged that some patients have died as a result of a lack of enough blood at the blood bank.
The Administrator of the Kanifing General Hospital, Baboucarr Saine, denied the reports when contacted, saying the hospital has zero tolerance for unprofessional conduct, adding that any staff caught in such will be sent home forthwith.
Asked how he was unable to be in the know when reports of alleged “blood bribery” had already been communicated to the media by multiple sources, administrator Saine said they sometimes get certain information but could not act on it without compelling evidence.
“That is how an administration works. We need evidence to take action. I want these sources to give us evidence for us to take action against this allegation,” he added.