Government to transform blood donor authority

The Ministry of Health has kicked off a process that will see the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) transformed into a fully fledged authority to manage the country’s blood bank.

By last evening, stakeholders in the health sector and donors were deliberating on a range of proposals, key among them, the need to come up with a regulatory framework in the absence of a clear law on blood management services.

The idea, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said, is to have a complete paradigm shift in the way the government collects, stores, and manages blood.

“This morning the stakeholders have been called because of the problems that exist in the Blood Transfusion Department of our Ministry. They have made certain proposals going forward.

For instance, as the Bill in Parliament awaits enactment, we urgently want to manage blood in this country, not as a department in the ministry but as a standalone authority, as a Semi Autonomous Government Agency (SAGA),” he told journalists at a Nairobi hotel. 

Blood cartels

Kagwe took over the Health docket over a week ago and immediately disclosed that cartels were siphoning the country’s blood bank, and selling the precious commodity across the borders.

Yesterday, he said the government has not been managing this sector properly despite the vital role it plays in the management of health services.

“It is a fact that clearly we haven’t been giving sufficient attention in this area that is so critical.

For a long time, as a country, we ignored the importance of blood, and going forward, the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) will be transformed to a Semi Autonomous Government Agency (SAGA),” the CS said, adding that this would help bring in the element of entrenching the whole blood collection, storage and management on an ICT platform to minimise inefficiencies.

The idea, he said, is to address the matter “holistically and have a paradigm shift in the way government thinks about; in the way it seeks for; in the way it stores, and in the way it manages blood transfusion.” 

“We have not been managing the whole exercise correctly. In the short term as we await the Bill that’s on the floor of the National Assembly, we are coming up with a regulatory framework, to start managing the blood sector immediately,” he said.

Proper framework

Currently, there is a Bill in Parliament as a private member’s bill sponsored by Murang’a Woman Rep Sabina Chege.

The plan to transform the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services (KNBTS), a department under the MoH into a parastatal, started in 2013, but Kagwe said even as the Bill is enacted into law, there is need to come up with regulations to start managing the blood transfusion services immediately. 

“We are coming up with a proper framework of how we are going to manage blood in our country.

Even as we wait for Parliament to enact the proposed law that we are going to take to them; we are also going to be taking measures through regulation and create a framework that can immediately embark on the changes that we want to make.

This so in order, that when the law is passed, it will simply transit into that framework legally,” he added.

However, he said lack of a substantive law is going to stop the planned framework from being executed.

“We are going to start making the changes we want immediately. We are, therefore , coming up with a proper framework of how we are going to manage blood in our country,” he added.