Following is a question by the Professor
Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (February
8):
Question:
At
present, the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS)
is responsible for collecting the blood donated by members of the
public for use by public and private hospitals during surgery or
emergency procedures. It is learnt that in recent years, the
number of Mainlanders undergoing surgery (including delivery by
caesarean section) at private hospitals in Hong Kong has risen
persistently, but the number of Hong Kong young people donating
blood has shown a downward trend, leading to a tight supply of
blood from time to time. In this connection, will the Government
inform this Council whether it knows:
(1)
the following in the past three years, (i) the relative
ratios and monthly quantities of blood provided by BTS to public
and private hospitals respectively, and (ii) the monthly numbers
of blood donations made by members of the public;
(2)
the respective numbers of blood transfusion received by
patients in public and private hospitals in the past three years,
with a breakdown by (i) patients' age, (ii) whether they were Hong
Kong residents, and (iii) the specialties that provided treatments
to them; and
(3)
whether BTS has formulated special measures to make young
people more enthusiastic about donating blood; if BTS has, of the
details?
Reply:
President,
The
Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) is the only
organisation that provides blood supplies for all public and
private hospitals in Hong Kong.
It is responsible for ensuring that sufficient supplies of
safe blood are available for clinical transfusion in all hospitals
throughout the territory.
The BTS has nine donor centres, six mobile teams (two of
which provide services at university campuses) and one mobile
vehicle for collecting the blood donated by voluntary
non-remunerated donors over the territory.
The nine donor centres are distributed over various
districts in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, including
Causeway Bay, Central District, Mong Kok, West Kowloon, Kwun Tong,
King's Park (headquarters), Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Yuen Long.
The mobile teams provide services for secondary schools,
tertiary institutions, industrial and commercial organisations,
government departments and community groups.
The mobile vehicle is converted from a 40-foot container
truck and is parked outside Tai Po Civic Centre on On Pong Road,
Tai Po or Fanling MTR Station.
My reply to the various parts of the question raised by
Professor Hon Joseph Lee is as follows:
(1) As
public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) provide about
90 per cent of in-patient services in Hong Kong, a large
proportion of blood currently supplied by the BTS is used by
patients in public hospitals.
Less than 10 per cent of the blood supplied is used by
private hospital patients.
Annex 1 sets out the amount and proportion of whole blood
and red blood cells supplied by the BTS to public and private
hospitals respectively in each month of the past three years.
The number of blood donations by members of the public in
each month of the past three years is set out at Annex 2.
(2) After
BTS distributes the blood to hospitals, blood banks of hospitals
will provide the appropriate types and quantities of blood to
patients according to their clinical needs.
Unless special procedures or arrangements are required in
the blood transfusion for a specific patient, the BTS will not
have advance or instant information on the specialty, ward,
operating theatre or ambulatory care centre to which the blood is
supplied or the background or treatment information of the patient
concerned. However,
consolidated data on the clinical use of blood is available at the
data repository of the HA for reference purpose.
Annex 3 sets out the proportion of the red blood cells used
by major specialties of public hospitals in the past three years.
The BTS does not maintain statistical record on the number
of blood transfusion in public and private hospitals, and the age
and residence status of the patients concerned.
(3) The
demand for blood supply is expected to be on a continuous rise as
a result of an ageing population.
The BTS is in urgent need of more dedicated blood donors to
help maintain a stable and sufficient blood supply.
The
BTS has been proactively devising and implementing measures to
recruit young donors.
To secure young people's donation as a source of blood supply,
programmes in various forms are launched to encourage them to
start donating blood.
Before the beginning of each school year, the BTS takes the
initiative to contact secondary schools in various districts to
work out a timetable for talks and mobile teams' visits in the
year. To keep
motivating young people to donate blood, the BTS has launched a
number of blood donation programmes with different themes over the
past few years, including the New Month New Donor Recruitment
Campaign, "Be cool, Be a Blood Donor" University Campaign, Student
Ambassador Programme and Student Regular Blood Donation Programme
and made commemorative badges, certificates and other special
souvenirs. With the
increasing number of post-secondary students, the BTS has set up
two campus donor centres at the University of Hong Kong and Hong
Kong Polytechnic University respectively.
Mobile teams will make regular visits to the campuses and
student hostels of various post-secondary institutions to set up
mobile blood donation points.
Besides, special publicity and promotional programmes are
designed for post-secondary students.
For example, special events are held on Halloween night and
Valentine's Day every year.
Moreover, in 2016, the BTS organised a publicity programme
called Millennium Cool Blood Donors to encourage the first-time
donation by secondary students who were born in 2000, the
Millennium Year of the Dragon, and turning 16 in 2016.
The number of blood donations by young donors aged 16 in
2016 increased by 8 per cent compared with that in 2015.
To engage young people in blood donation through a
multi-pronged approach, the BTS will continue to enhance
communication with young people by actively developing social
media and video broadcasting platforms for promotion and providing
them with more interactive information.
Annex 1
Annex 2
Annex 3