Sindh is the second most populous province of Pakistan and has a population of 60 million, has an area of 140,914 km2 and 23 administrative districts including the capital city of Karachi. Karachi is the also the financial capital of Pakistan and has a population of 18 million. The province has 49.5% urban population while rest of the 50.5% is rural population. The total number of public hospitals in whole province is 145 with 36 public sector hospitals and more than 109 private hospitals.
Government of Pakistan with support from Government of Germany initiated the process of restructuring of the blood transfusion system in the country including in Sindh in 2010. The Sindh Phase I PC-1 was worth 577.50 million (FEC 217.44 million, LC 360.06 million). In the Phase I of the project, four modern RBCs was developed in Karachi, Jamshoro, Nawabshah and Sukkur and 24 existing HBBs in the province linked to these RBCs and upgraded and equipped through the German government grant. This Jamshoro and Sukkur infrastructure is functional and is providing much improved services and safety standards. The remaining centers are in the process of becoming functional. In the current Phase II of the project three large public sector blood centers in Karachi are being upgraded to RBCs and two NGOs are also being supported through the German grant. The Phase II PC-1 is worth 115.294 million (LC: 27.000 million, FEC: 88.294 million).
The Regional Blood Centre is serving as blood procurement and distribution centre, ensuring quality systems to regulate all activities. Another important role being performed by the Centre is to mobilize voluntary blood donors, collect blood donations and conduct processing, screening, testing, component preparation and storage. The RBC supplies blood and blood components to the linked hospital blood banks which are performing the function of storage, compatibility testing, haemovigilance, and issuance to the wards.
The VNRBD activities in the RBCs are becoming very frequent and gaining momentum. Regular mobile camps are being organized and ‘walk-in donors’ are increasing in numbers. The reliance on family replacement donors is gradually decreasing and the concept of VNRBD is being promoted through blood camps, seminars and other promotional activities.
Capacity building is a continuous priority of the Programme. Since the operationalization of the RBCs, the new infrastructure has become the hub of training activities. SBTP in collaboration with RBC has organized a number of training activities for all the different levels of workers in the RBCs. The highlight of the workshops has remained the evident enthusiasm of the participants who are always most eager to learn and willing to concentrate for long hours every day in the workshop to enhance their professional skills and knowledge.