National Blood Transfusion Services to be upgraded

Sri Lanka government has decided to upgrade the National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS) with state of the art technology at a cost of US$32,634,979.58 with Assistance from Netherlands.  This was revealed by the Acting of Mass Media & Information & Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena at the Ccbinet press briefing held at the Government Information Department this morning.

The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) of Sri Lanka is the sole supplier of blood to all Government Hospitals and the majority of private sector hospitals in the country.

Among the major benefits derived from the above will be introduction of ultra high sensitive test methods to minimize the threat of transmission of blood born infections; and, frozen red cell facility to enable the preservation of rare blood types up to 10 years. With the existing facilities the maximum life for red blood cells is 42 days. The proposed frozen red cell facility would preserve the red cells up to a period of 10 years.