A bill for the establishment of National Blood Service Commission passed third reading at the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, May 18.
The bill, which was sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, seeks to standardise the practice of blood donation in Nigeria.
The National Blood Service Commission Bill, if passed into law, would grant the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) the autonomy to carry out its mandate according to global best practices. It would also regularise the appointment of core technical members of staff previously engaged in the programme.
The establishment of the Blood Service Commission is expected to further enhance the performance of the NBTS by ensuring that relevant skill-sets are available to optimise service delivery at the blood service.
Recall that in 2017, former Minister of Health Isaac Adewole had said that insufficiency of blood for transfusion had been one of the reasons for the high rate of deaths and delays in attending to victims at health facilities in the country.
Adewole had also stated that passing of the bill into law would be consistent with the campaign to foster collaborations with relevant agencies such as the Nigerian Red Cross Society, the Nigerian Road Safety Corps and the Nigerian Defence Forces so as to develop guidelines for action during emergencies.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.