Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ7: Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service
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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LCQ7 Annex