Blood shortage crisis hits Uganda

Raising on a matter of national importance during parliamentary sessions, Ruyonga said he was afraid the country would run short of blood if the shortage of blood collection supplies at National Medical Stores (NMS) is not addressed.

“My prayer is that government provides money to the tune of Shs9 billion to allow Uganda Blood Transfusion Services collect more blood because from May 2023 there will be no supplies,” Ruyonga said.

He said that basing on the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Uganda is collecting less units of blood compared to the country’s target.

“With a population of 45.7 million people and the refugee community, we expect 473,000 units of blood but this year the resource envelope allocated for collecting blood was only for 300,000 units,” Ruyonga said.

The State Minister for Primary Health Care, Margaret Muhanga, said the ministry is working towards scaling up blood collection.

“We are scaling up the collection of blood to have enough in our blood bank; we sometimes drum up support for people to come and donate but when they donate it is not enough; remember we have people who cannot donate blood,” she said.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, directed the chairperson of the Heath Committee to consider the situation as the committee considers the sector budget for Financial Year 2023/2024.