Interview with the chief freelance transfusiologist of the Healthcare Committee of the Minsk City Executive Committee, head of the city center of transfusiology, Ph.D.
Klimovich Olga Vladimirovna.
The World Health Organization persistently urges the world community to make donation free. What is your position in this matter?
- I think this is right. In 76 states, people donate their blood for free, and such a system justifies themselves. If the main motive for blood donation is money, and not an act of mercy, as it should be, can be a lot of people who want to become a donor, but the blood harvesting system does not benefit from this. A simple example. Those who want to become a donor must honestly answer questions of the questionnaire about the diseases that do not allow to donate blood, and already at this stage one of the candidates must be eliminated, self-confront. We have such self -assassination - zero. A person who wants to donate blood for ideological reasons will not hide anything, will prepare for the bloodstand accordingly, which is extremely important!
- Is it realistic in Belarus to completely switch to a gratuitous system of donation?
- So far, this will be considered only as the task of exclusively medical structures - no. State support, focused social campaign, propaganda of this system of blood circulation as the most productive and effective is very important. There is a law on donation, there is talk about the need for some changes, but there is no result yet. Advertising, rollers in the media on the relevant topic, raising the prestige of the donor showing the value of his good will, of course, would have achieved the necessary result. Propaganda among children and youth, various actions and educational programs to strengthen motivation for donation with the participation of famous politicians, artists, media people, it seems to me, would be very interesting and in demand in society. I judge this from the experience of my foreign colleagues who have achieved significant results in this area.
- What is the difficulty?
- in the absence of proper legislative framework and purposeful state support. The matter is not even about money: those funds that are paid to donors today are comparable to the costs necessary to activate the process of promotion of gratuitous donation. Since Soviet times, people remember posters, information stands and donor icons - tiny red droplets. Today there is no this, and we are trying to change the situation.
The fact that somewhere in the years of the 90s of the last century we began to pay money for the bloodstream is quite logical and explainable. There was a time when blood reserves in the city could provide emergency operations, and for many other cases, a waiting list was created! The problem had to be somehow solved, but now, it seems to me, the consciousness of society can and should be changed, from childhood, raising the understanding that donation as an act of mercy should be free. In France, for example, such a system developed after the Second World War, when people in the wake of patriotism gave their blood for free, and an understanding of the importance of this in the country has been preserved so far.
- What exactly should be done To increase motivation for gratuitous donation?
- First of all, an electronic base should be formed, reflecting all information about patients, and the relationship between healthcare institutions is established. The doctor must confirm or refute the presence of certain contraindications in those who wish to become a donor of certain contraindications by contacting the computer, and a person should not run around the clinic in search of the necessary certificates and documents. The need to spend a lot of time to pass medical examinations scares away many potential donors. In 2015, it is planned to introduce a separate building with the action where our center will be located. We think it as an advanced medical institution of the European level, harvesting blood and its components, with a cryobank, a wide system of therapeutic procedures, and now I am saying that it will simply not work without the appropriate information base and computer technology!
Various thematic actions, the cycles of measures involving volunteers are very important. For example, I believe that on June 14 - on World Donesty Day - maybe you should not massively donate blood, it is better to attract people's attention to the problem as much as possible. Not so long ago, we held a similar action with the participation of Belarusian TV presenters, they donated blood, told why we decided to do this, there were some personal examples, we presented each donor later a letter of thanks and gifts.
In addition, we organize training seminars for specialists, inviting foreign colleagues to us. By the way, such such a meeting will be held in the center in mid -April.
- I think, that the main motivation for donation - The internal qualities of a person and the system of values in which he lives.
- True, and Belarusians are very sincere people, sensitive, always ready to respond. But we must understand that an effective and safe system for creating non -inflated blood stocks is possible only with the participation of constant, so -called personnel, donors, and not students, doctors, military and volunteers who decided to donate blood once. When there was a terrorist attack in the Minsk metro in April 2011, many people expressed a desire to donate blood for the victims, thank you so much for it! During the examination of blood, cases of the detection of markers of parenteral hepatitis, HIV infections, in which donation was impossible and the presence of which people did not suspect were revealed.
- The most common myth of donation - This…
- ... the possibility of infection when leaving blood. It is very disappointing to hear this, because the security system is at a high level. Disposable consumables, an automated process of fence of blood components, highly qualified personnel - we have everything to exclude such a risk.
- You can turn to those who never donated blood and to donors with great "We experience."
- I would like everyone to understand how important the donor mission in our world is, how honorable it is when it is executed free of charge. We are ready to help when a big trouble happens, but trouble - a big or small one - in the life of other people happens every day, which means that this help is always needed. Donation must be free. Let the money that a person will not require in return for his act of mercy will go to the purchase of high -quality supplies, modern testing systems, and new medical equipment. You are healthy and can save someone’s life-do not ask for this reward!
Anna Koryakova,
"Belarus-MTZ Review."
