National Blood Transfusion Service bags top slot

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

Sri Lanka’s National Blood Transfusion Service won first place among National Blood Transfusion Services in developing countries. It won the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Award 2012, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

ISBT is the premier international professional society in blood transfusion and transplantation sciences and medicine, the spokesman said.

An open announcement was made proclaiming the selection of the best transfusion service among developing countries at the ISBT Congress 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, he said. Sri Lanka won the award for adhering WHO standards, for a well-planned system in blood transfusion, providing safe blood of good quality and progress in this procedure.

Each competitor had to answer a structured essay type common questionnaire providing supportive evidence for all the answers given. In this competition, performances of 2009, 2010 and 2011 were evaluated covering all aspects that accounted for the improvements of the transfusion service.