Photo: blood center Burgas
“With proper organization and quick work, the Blood Center in Burgas can be operational for up to 2 years.” Dr. Lyudmila Zhelyazkova, head of the Department of Transfusion Hematology at UMBAL Burgas commented this.
For the 11th year now, the hospitals in the seaside town have been demanding the construction of a Blood Center. Dr. Zhelyazkova pointed out:
“BGN 15 million is needed to transform the department at the UMBAL into a Blood Center. In a building that is close to the hospital, there is an opportunity to rebuild a three-story center with all the necessary laboratories and equipment needed for the processing of blood and blood products. I think that Burgas has fulfilled the necessary requirements to have a separate blood center – we have a medical university, personnel are being trained, we have many medical facilities and patients who need blood transfusions.”
The problem of the lack of a Blood Center in Burgas puts doctors and patients in the district to daily challenges. According to Dr. Zhelyazkova, the department of transfusion hematology is just a “blood warehouse”:
“This warehouse contains a certain number of products for a certain period of time. Requests are made to Stara Zagora. But these requests, for babies for example, are more specific. Firstly, they are smaller in quantity, and secondly, a solution containing mannitol is not added to them. He gets in the way of little kids. This request must be given to Stara Zagora and it must come with the regular transport, which happens within three days. The next problem is that the blood that comes must be compatible with this baby. If it is incompatible, we have to wait a few more days for the next delivery. If this child cannot wait that long, an emergency transport is organized, the costs of which are borne by the relevant medical institution. Can an ambulance make several trips to the regional center while we are here? But we don’t have a single product in our “warehouse” that is suitable for babies. So right now, if something happens to a newborn child, we don’t have a bag that has blood in it without that added solution that’s appropriate for that baby.”
With the construction of such a center in Burgas, blood processing will be done here, patients will not have to wait, there will be no additional costs for transport, working hours will be increased for the convenience of blood donors and many new jobs will be created.
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