DOHA: The Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is planning to set up a central blood bank to upgrade the services of its existing blood donation unit, a senior HMC official has said.
HMC is currently working on a project to build a "laboratory tower" that will accommodate the specialised laboratories at HMC and enhance the quality and standard of their services.
The dedicated facility to be constructed by the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is expected to be ready by 2013, according to Dr Ajaib Al Nabit, the head of HMC's Laboratory Department.
"We have tied up with Ashghal and an American company specialising in laboratory designs to implement the project. The basic designs are currently in the final stages," said Al Nabit, in an interview with Al Sharq.
The department has already recruited four qualified consultants for the new facility while another eight specialists will be brought in soon. Technicians for the laboratories have been picked up from among the biological science graduates of the Qatar University. They will get training before they are appointed.
Al Nabit said the proposed blood bank would help further upgrade the methods and technology used in collection and storage of blood in the country.
The department has already introduced the latest technology for extracting platelets from blood and is in the process of upgrading quality control of the blood samples. The blood bank is being computerised as part of efforts to improve safety and quality.
The blood bank receives about 18,000 donors annually, one-third of them nationals. Ninety percent of the donation is voluntary while the rest comprises people who donate blood for their relatives, said Al Nabit.
She said the Laboratory Department was ready for liver transplant surgeries, which HMC plans to introduce shortly. The HMC laboratories are also equipped for lung, heart, pancreas and bone barrow transplant operations.
A new laboratory is planned in the Al Amal hospital while the department is in the process of installing state-of-the-art laboratories at the Al Wakra Hospital, which is slated to open in April next year.
© The Peninsula 2010
