Nation's largest blood bank opens in HCM City

HCM CITY—Viet Nam's biggest blood bank opened yesterday at HCM City's Haematology and Blood Transfusion Institute.

The VND90 billion (US$4.8 million) international-standard facility will provide blood and plasma to all public and private hospitals in the city and even neighbouring provinces.

The bank, 50 per cent funded by the city, spent more than VND56 billion in buying advanced computer-controlled technology and equipment from the US, Japan, Germany, and France.

Associate Prof Dr Nguyen Tan Binh, head of the institute, said the bank had a capacity of 300,000 units.

Experienced experts trained in the US, France, Belgium, and Singapore have been employed to run the facility where graduate and post-graduate haematology students would be trained in future, he said.

It has the capability to store blood for many decades just like other countries in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

"Social welfare is considered one of the most important tasks by the city leaders," Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy head of the municipal People's Committee, said while commenting about the establishment of the blood bank.

"The Party and administration always attach priority to developing the city's healthcare sector to provide better services to not only people in HCM City but also the rest of the southern region."

The blood bank is the fourth set up in the country since last year while others in Ha Noi, Hue and Can Tho were built using World Bank loans.

The institute's umbilical cord blood bank, established in 2002, has been installed with a modern preservation system, enabling it to store 10,000 samples.

In related news, the city-based Tropical Diseases Hospital inaugurated an HIV/AIDS Treatment Centre built at a cost of VND34.5 billion (US$1.8 million).

Dr Nguyen Tran Chinh, deputy director of the centre, said the 150-bed facility marked an important development in HCM City's efforts to improve healthcare services and fight infectious diseases.

Beside diagnosis and treatment, the centre will also be used for research and training university students. — VNS