Blood banks obtain ISO certification

The UAE Central Laboratories and blood banks department administration and the blood banks in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah have been granted ISO 9002 certification.
Amin Hussain Al Amiri, Director of the Department of Laboratories and Blood Transfusion, said the British Standardisation Inc handled the evaluation of the blood transfusion service.
Al Amiri said: "The expert, Annette Shabman, who supervised the evaluation programme, said the UAE was the first country in the Gulf to receive the ISO 9002 in the field of blood transfusion services."
The UAE received the certificate on the first evaluation. That included the administrative system, quality assurance, registration of laboratory results, daily work performance, purchasing systems, care given to blood donors, traceability, inspection systems and quality control of the blood banks receiving blood units from the central banks.
The local production of artificial blood was another area which impressed the evaluators.
The work of the mobile blood banks and blood donation campaigns was also evaluated.
Al Amiri said that they were preparing the 23 main laboratories in all Ministry of Health hospitals to obtain the same ISO certificate next year.
Commenting on the achievement, Dr. Abdul Gaffar Abdul Gaffor, First Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health, said:
"Since the mid-1980s, the Central Laboratories and blood banks departments have taken the responsibilitiy of developing and updating their services and systems to cope with the swift progress taking place in this field.
"Part of this achievement is producing artificial blood locally, and the selection of the UAE as a reference centre for blood banks for the Gulf countries in the year 1996."