Blood transfusion services in the country has received a major boost after the government acquired digital blood grouping machines.
The machines will be used to fast-track the process of screening and classifying blood in some eight regional blood transfusion centres.
Speaking when he officially launched one of the machines at the Kisumu Regional Blood Transfusion Centre, Director of Medical Services Dr. Jackson Kioko said the purchase is part of the Ministry of Health’s Sh200 million programme to modernize the centres alongside other satellite stations across the country.
Kioko said the shift from manual blood grouping to digital will ensure that blood is made available to health facilities faster whenever need arises.
“The transmission of blood through the manual grouping takes two to three days but with these sophisticated machines we will be able to examine up to 176 samples and get results within 3 hours,” said Kioko.
He noted that the machines have the capability of separating blood at the same time produce profiles within a short time.