alarming figures
In early July 2025, receiving information from the Board of Directors of Can Tho City Hematology - Blood Transfusion Hospital, reporters came to record the actual situation of blood and blood products at the Blood Guard Station, under the screening - treatment - distribution department of the Hospital. Inside the warehouse, the amount of blood has decreased significantly, no longer as full as before; in the large warehouse area, the blood reserve is estimated to be about a few hundred units.
It is known that in the past, blood stores usually contained 4,000 - 5,000 bags of blood. This is an ideal number to prepare for emergencies, especially providing for nearly 80 hospitals and medical centers in the Mekong Delta region.
With the current decrease in the number, the Board of Directors must carefully consider the use of blood at the Hospital, as well as the supply to units; for now, priority is only given to emergency cases. In addition, the Hospital no longer organizes blood donations as before, instead, units proactively come to receive them.
At the Department of Humanitarian Blood Donation, Doctor Nguyen Xuan Khoi said that usually, from the mobilization work, provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta will register to donate from 15,000 - 18,000 units of blood/month. Through health condition testing, the amount collected is about 12,000 units/month. However, statistics from April to now, the Department has only received about 7,000 units of blood. This July alone, the registration schedule from provinces and cities is quite low, only about 5,000 units.
Thanks to good health conditions and having donated blood many times, Ms. Phan Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Can Tho City) was urgently called upon by medical staff at the department to donate blood voluntarily on the morning of July 4.
Ms. Quynh shared: "The doctors called me to arrange to come immediately, because each drop of my blood given would help save the lives of patients out there. However, when I came here today, I saw the deserted space, not many people donating like the previous few times".
Continue to propose long-term solutions
In addition to proactively calling for voluntary blood donation from previous data sources, through a launch from the grassroots Trade Union, the Board of Directors, the team of cadres, union members, and youth in the entire hospital responded to participate in blood donation on July 1. The amount of blood collected by more than 50 units is a significant contribution to the health sector in the face of the current risk of blood shortage.
Talking to us, Specialist Doctor II Huynh Minh Phu - Director of Can Tho City Hematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital - said that the Hospital is making every effort to synchronously implement solutions, trying not to fall into a passive position. Because, currently, upper-level hospitals are also facing similar difficulties, unable to provide blood donations to the Mekong Delta as before.
Restored blood supply is showing a sharp decrease, directly affecting the lives of patients not only in Can Tho but also in the entire Mekong Delta region. Each unit of blood donated at this time has the meaning of survival. The hospital has been continuing to call on universities and colleges to join hands in promoting and mobilizing staff and students to participate in blood donation.
In the long term, the hospital is eager to ask the Steering Committee for voluntary blood donation mobilization of provinces and cities in the region to soon complete the Steering Committee for wards and communes to mobilize participation in blood donation, in order to have a source of blood for treatment and supply, said Doctor Phu.
