Sharjah blood bank to get new premises

The Sharjah Blood Bank will move to a new Dh8 million building in Muaileh by the end of this year.

Amin Hussain Al Amiri, director of blood transfusion services of the Ministry of Health, said the one-storey building will be the most advanced blood bank in the Middle East.

The ground floor will accommodate a reception, halls for blood donors, blood components donation section, specialised laboratories, blood components storage rooms and children's entertainment halls.

The first floor will house the administration, a meeting room for 50 people, conference hall with a capacity of 200, a medical library and a mosque.

Blood donations will be carried out in two halls, one each for men and women. Each hall can accommodate 10 donors at one time and can be expanded to accommodate a maximum of 20 donors. Forty people can donate blood in 5 or 10 minutes.

The full capacity of the two halls is very big compared to centres in developing countries. The two halls will also have sub-sections such as one for blood samples and an intensive care for emergency cases.

Two sections will be designated for donating main blood components instead of whole blood units. Sophisticated equipment will allow direct transfusion of the required blood component to a patient.

There will also be four specialised medical laboratories which include virus diagnosis, blood components split, haemotology and research. Automatic doors will connect the four laboratories to ease movement of doctors and technicians. Entrance to sections is expected to be by fingerprint identification.

The virus diagnosis laboratory will diagnose all types of viral diseases caused by blood transfusion.

Using an advanced process which immediately removes the leucocyte (white blood cells) from donated blood units, the blood components laboratory will split up the blood units into their main components to be kept and used in future.

The haemotology laboratory will conduct tests to the blood group before units are donated. The laboratory will also conduct blood culture to detect whether the blood carries any disease.

The medical research laboratory is the biggest section in the new premises. The laboratory will test for tissue types to transplant bone marrow for patients with blood cancer and those needing kidney or liver transplant.

A new system using umbilical cord blood to treat blood related diseases will be introduced. The laboratory will use the system to treat diseases such as thalassemia.

There will also be car parking facilities.