CRI听力:China's Hospitals Face Severe Blood Supply Shortages

Many Chinese cities are suffering from a severe clinical blood supply shortage. Experts urge the government to promote blood donations and improve the donation system nationwide. He Fei has the details.

Many hospitals in Beijing have recently been compelled to postpone surgeries due to blood shortages.

Wang Deqing is chief director of the blood transfusion department for the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army. He says this year's blood shortage is more severe than ever before.

"Actually, it is a regular problem, but this year the period of blood shortage has been longer than before."

The same situation is occurring in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. According to the local blood center, there has been less than 200,000 cc of blood supplies for months, which is about half of the ideal daily amount.

Dr. Yu Chengpu of Sun Yat-sen University says there are three main reasons behind the problem.

"First, people worry donating blood will affect their health, due to traditional Chinese concepts of health and safety concerns. Second, the composition of donors lacks variety. In Kunming, the main blood donors are college students and migrant workers. Therefore, when summer and winter holidays come, hospitals face blood shortages. Third, people have doubts about the blood donation system."

According to China's Blood Donation Law, clinical blood supply is free for Chinese citizens. But, hospitals charge their patients 220 yuan or about 30 US dollars per 200 milliliter. Many people think that either the blood center or the hospital financially benefit from the donors. Yu Chengpu points out that the test processing and storage costs of the blood mean that hospitals don't profit. He suggests that the government make more efforts to clear the public's misconceptions of the system.
Wang Deqing, from the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, says his hospital is encouraging patients' relatives to donate blood. He calls for an integration of blood centers across the country to meet emergencies.

"We seldom use the blood pool from other cities. I think there should be an emergency package to transfer blood from other places."

It is reported that 99 percent of blood for clinical use came from public donations last year, while it was only 5 percent 12 years ago, when the nation's blood donation law was enacted. Although it is a great leap, the situation remains that just 84 out of every 10,000 people donate blood in China, which is far less than the 450 in high-income countries and 100 in middle-income countries.
 
For CRI, this is He Fei.