Assessment & Development Of Palestinian Blood Bank System

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Date
2011
Authors
Haneen Tanni
Alaa Sarhan
Raya Khwayreh
Razan Assaf
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Abstract
 The countries of the world define their health policies on the basis of stability. In Palestine our health policies are defined based on the basis of emergency and no stability. There are a lot of emergency situations as a result from the nature of Palestinian life. Political and economical conditions both have a great affect on the health situation of the majority of our people.  This leads to a mass need of treatment and blood units. This need causes a lack of blood units in our health institutions, but in fact this lack resulting from the lack of coordination between the health institutions and the concerned parties. The human safety is very important which requires a safety blood bank system in the side of blood tests and safety blood storage. The nature of our political situation requires us to give attention to the process of distribution and the availability of blood units in hospitals and to stand on the needs from the blood through statistical studies, so emergency plans are build based on the results of these studies, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system used in blood banks to ensure a better life for our community. The Palestinian Ministry of Health is working to create a clear vision for the development of the Palestinian health sector by ensuring the delivery of health services in high quality and safe for all Palestinian citizens. In spite of our recognition that the health development remains incomplete and difficult in the presence of the occupation and its procedures, but it has to be a challenging work and determination to complete the construction of health institutions which satisfy our coming independent state, and its capital Jerusalem.  The research, development, and innovation are the most important features that enhance the success of scientific knowledge. They provide a better care for Palestinian people in order to strengthen their existence at their homeland to face the attempts of the occupation to uproot them from their land. In order to achieve these goals the services must be developed, and this requires us to research and accumulate on every task achieved and that does not stop at the completion of one group achievement and continue to move forward in order to give our people the best health service. In the field of blood transfusion, there is a continuing need for research and development to answer the many questions. People in Palestine are living under occupation and no one can forecast what will be happened, for example, during the last war on Gaza, the blood banks faced great difficulty in providing the safe blood due to the large number of wounded people, and therefore the ministry of health established the Palestinian National Blood Bank in 2009. It is necessary to promote communication, cooperation and information exchange between the blood transfusion centers, to implement the best ways of working in the fields of selection of proper blood donors, to encourage voluntary donation, and apply the quality control and quality assurance systems; by keeping a continuous training for workers in blood banks, and follow-up developments regard blood transfusion; all this in order to save the lives of many people. Development of work and access to high quality needs technical and financial support at the same time and continuous contact with national blood banks in order to keep up with what's new regards blood transfusion systems, and storage.   The nature of our political in Palestine requires us to be on full readiness for any emergency, this is except the existence of patients who need blood transfusions on a regular time, and also the large number of road accidents in recent times made the situation more difficult. But what raises the question and puzzlement, when a simple accident occurs immediately calls are heard from hospitals and across the minarets of the houses of God that they are in a mass need to go to the hospital to donate blood, why at the last minute the blood units are not found to save the patient's life? Why blood units are search  from our citizens  at the last moment which makes us to accept these blood units  and give it to our patients without making all  the necessary tests to ensure the safety of both the donor and the patient at the same time?. While this blood unit might be found in another hospital or any other health association and its delivery doesn't need several minutes, but the lack of coordination between health institutions and the absence of monitoring and control system of the reserve blood units available in every hospital and their types may be offer the last chance to rescue a person from death. They must ensure the safety of both the patient and the donor; so they have to be attention that these blood units free of infectious diseases by conducting all the necessary medical tests accurately and credibility through the adoption of working procedures documented, as well as the need for a medical record for donors to maintain their safety. Also the conditions of storage of the blood units is one of the most important things that must be taken to reduce the damage that may occurs to the blood units, especially, if these blood units are rare. And they must follow a documented mechanism to follow up the inventory of blood units expired periodically to know the actual reserve and compensate the shortage directly. Expected outcomes The main objective:   The main objective of the project is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system, the blood that is currently applied in order to maintain the quality of services provided by the health sector in Palestine and make it sustainable manner and ability to respond to any emergencies to ensure the provision of units of blood free of infectious decreases for all patients from our people. Specific objectives:   Studying the current situation in the blood bank to identify weaknesses creates opportunities for development. Developing a strategic plan to increase the effectiveness of the blood bank. Working on documenting procedures for blood donation. Reducing the proportion of defective units donated. Promoting occupational safety procedures to ensure the health of citizens and workers in this sector. Developing a plan to develop staff career to be able to deal with the modern devices in this area. Establishment of a central blood bank supervises all blood banks and blood centers, transfusion services in hospitals and health institutions to meet the need. Designing a mechanism for the computerization of information and to find a way to link between hospitals and charities, both through the creation of data base or a website designed to regulate the process of blood donation and distribution, and recording data of all donors in blood banks. Finding a specialized center to conduct all research in the field of blood transfusion under direct supervision by the Ministry of Health and charities related to the blood banks. Significant improvements in coordination of blood banks management and changes in policy-level systems. The structure of the report:    The first section of an assessment and development report focuses on literature review of    main researches which is conducted to blood bank issue in different aspects like information  management system , blood donation,  inventory management, quality management , and  organization structure  , two cases study are presented in second  section  which  demonstrates the current assessment of  blood banks in Tulkarm and Nablus in different aspect which includes quality system, quality control of equipment, maintenance system, organizational  structure , information system, standards procedure, and blood inventory system, Third section focuses on the  methodology which is used in this study to discuss the approach and techniques are  used to achieve the objectives of this  project  based on Interview with whom concerned with blood bank in health ministry, in addition to managers and employees of blood bank, observation, and questionnaire in qualitative analysis , then gap analysis and development based on World Health Organization WHO standards , other  international standards , and research which includes  blood donation issue , screening for transfusion transmissible infections, labeling, preservation , storage of blood and components , organization structure, quality assurance, then results and  discussion section which represents findings which is related to those studies, and finally conclusion and recommendations  to be taken into consideration for blood bank system development.Regardless, this report brings attention and insight into ongoing World Health Organization efforts and scientific studies for providing safe blood. It offers a literature review for researchers to ensure the quality management of blood transfusion services in which emphasis is laid on ensuring consistency in performing various activities so that the safety and quality of blood is guaranteed. It does not only help identify the gaps in knowledge and practice and work to be done, but also offers standard operating procedures, so every blood bank should have ability to adapt these procedures and develop their own blood bank standards to yield desired quality results, but they serve as a reminder of how far the society still have to achieving blood banks objective of continuously providing adequate, safe and quality blood 
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