Blood bank for police ‘wouldn’t quite work like that’
Chang says security ministry will intervene from policy level if cops experience delays getting substance for surgery
Published:Friday | May 31, 2024 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A request by a female detective constable from Westmoreland for the Government to consider allowing the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to establish a dedicated blood bank for police officers has not found favour with National Security Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang.
Speaking from the floor of the just-concluded 81st annual joint central conference of the JCF, Detective Constable S. Simpson suggested a dedicated blood reserve for police officers, citing low participation from the public to donate blood for policemen and women who are injured while on duty.
“Could the JCF consider a dedicated blood reserve (blood bank) for its members, ensuring that in the event a member is injured on duty they can access blood for their surgery,” Miller asked during a question and answer session.
She continued, “When a member is injured on duty and requires surgery, there is often an appeal for blood donation to meet their immediate needs and their colleagues and their relatives often do it.”
While she did not reveal any particular incident in which policemen or policewomen have died due to a lack of blood, she notes that she has witnessed it taking place.
However, Dr Chang, who is also a medical doctor by profession, doesn’t see having dedicated blood bank reserves for police officers as a feasible policy, at least not at this time.
“I understand what you are saying, but it wouldn’t work quite like that, because we have to go by the blood types,” said Chang.
He said normally a team from the blood bank would respond to the need where there is a major accident, or if surgeries are to be done.
The national security minister promised to intervene where there may be delays in accessing blood for policemen and women in need of surgery.
“If there are any police in need of surgery and there is a delay, we will intervene from a policy level,” said Chang.
SIGNIFICANT PRESSURE
In recent months there have been several appeals by members in the medical field for more persons to donate blood. This, as the national blood bank reserves have run low as a result of increased criminal activities and accidents.
Dr Marcia Graham, medical officer of health for Westmoreland, in a story published by The Gleaner earlier this month, said there is a critical need for blood, admitting that persons have actually died because it is lacking.
“We need more blood donors. The system has come under significant pressure, and we have lost the lives of some of our citizens for lack of blood, and so I am issuing this appeal,” Dr Graham said while providing a report at the general meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation recently.
“I go back to our mothers. Some of them when they come in to deliver their babies, after the baby is born, their womb fails to contract adequately and they end up with bleeding after delivering. And sometimes it is fatal because we don’t have the blood to save the lives of our mothers,” she said.
Clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority, Dr Delroy Fray, declared that the entire region – covering the parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland – is now at crisis levels as it faces an emergency blood shortage.
“There is no question that motor vehicle accidents and gunshot wounds consume a lot of our blood products. I have said this over and over and I have begged the drivers to stay within the speed limit,” Dr Fray stated.
“The vast majority of these accidents are due to speeding which causes unnecessary injuries, unnecessary death, unnecessary hospitalisation, [and] unnecessary use of our blood products,” he said.