ICCBBA is pleased to announce that the Dr. Sardjito Hospital, a nonprofit teaching hospital in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation, a nonprofit organization with offices throughout Africa, are the recipients of the 2020 ICCBBA Enterprise Grant for their proposals to improve transfusion safety practices in Indonesia and Cameroon, respectively.
Over 3 million blood units are collected annually in Indonesia by blood centers that belong to the Indonesian Red Cross or by government hospitals, however, transfusion safety implementation varies throughout hospitals in the country. Officials at Dr. Sardjito Hospital have recognized areas for improvement in hospital transfusion safety practices and have proposed a plan to address them.
“The national hemovigilance program is a breakthrough and is a very important topic in Indonesia”, said Dr. Teguh Triyono, Faculty of Medicine at Dr Sardjito Hospital. “Dr Sardjito Hospital was chosen by the Ministry of Health as the starting center of the program. The Enterprise Grant will be allocated to implement hemovigilance and related programs accordingly as we are focusing on increasing awareness regarding transfusion safety and discipline in administration.”
Dr. Sardjito Hospital aims to empower transfusion safety management within its facility in order to serve as a national role model throughout the country. Specifically, their goals are to develop a standard transfusion-side event reporting system referring to World Health Organization guidelines and the International Haemovigilance Network standard, to increase knowledge and skills in blood safety as a result of educational activities, and to increase awareness and willingness of hospitals to join the National Haemovigilance Program.
Cameroon is a developing country in Africa with a population of about 20 million inhabitants. Availability and accessibility of patients to safe blood remain important issues of concern, particularly as the country lacks a well-organized and nationally coordinated blood safety system. The Ministry of Public Health has initiated the development of laws and regulations, as well as documents on the organization and management of blood services in Cameroon. As part of this work, the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation has previously worked with the Yaounde Central Hospital Blood Service and has seen improvements in blood donor recruitment and management, blood donation screening, processing and storage, and staff training. Their proposed project intends to build on this success.
“The ICCBBA Enterprise Grant is a good example of international support to blood safety in Africa with concrete effect on the existing system. Through this Grant, the Safe Blood for Africa foundation will expand its technical support to other Cameroonian blood services following the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion certification of the main blood service in the country”, said Professor Claude Tayou Tagny, Country Project Coordinator for the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation.
Similar to the Dr. Sardjito Hospital, the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation intends to utilize the Yaounde Central Hospital Blood Service as a reference center for the 15 other blood services in Cameroon. A workshop will be held to increase knowledge and assist other hospitals in implementing their own quality systems.