Ministry of Health and Welfare Requests Blood Supply Management from Medical Institutions

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 14th that it has officially requested approximately 280 major blood-using medical institutions to promptly establish and operate a blood supply crisis response system. This measure aims to systematically respond to the blood shortage crisis caused by concerns over the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Due to the cancellation of group blood donations and avoidance of going out amid COVID-19, the blood inventory has dropped to the caution stage level of 3.0 days' supply according to the crisis response manual.

Accordingly, the targeted medical institutions must form an 'Emergency Blood Management Committee' composed of hospital executives at the deputy director level or higher to establish and implement countermeasures according to the blood inventory crisis stage.

A person responsible for managing blood inventory must be designated to check the blood inventory of red blood cell products by blood type during a blood supply crisis, and during the 'caution stage' of blood supply, report the daily blood usage management status of affiliated medical institutions to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's Blood Management System (BMS).

They must create such an internal 'blood supply crisis response system' and submit it through the Korean Red Cross's BISS (Blood Information Sharing System).

Ha Tae-gil, Director of the Bioethics Policy Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "With this measure, we hope to establish a basic framework for blood usage management plans to respond to future blood supply crises and to strongly raise awareness among medical institutions about the necessity of proper transfusion management."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.