-
Chairing meeting, Minster Ahsan expresses satisfaction over SBTP progress
ISLAMABAD: The review meeting of the Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) 2017-18 on Tuesday maintained the financial budget of the Safe Blood Transfusion Project (SBTP) without any cuts.
The review meeting was held here to assess the physical and financial progress of budgeted development projects of financial year 2017-18. The financial cuts were made in case of many slow moving or non-performing projects.
The performance and progress of the Safe Blood Transfusion Project (SBTP) was also reviewed. Minster for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal who chaired the meeting expressed satisfaction over the progress of the project and appreciated its achievements.
SBTP National Coordinator Prof Hasan Abbas Zaheer is responsible for the project implementation since its inception in 2010. The Ministry of Health had established the Safe Blood Transfusion Programme in 2010 with the support of the German government through its KFW-funded financial cooperation component and GIZ-funded technical cooperation component.
In the last seven years, significant progress has been made in establishing and strengthening the blood regulatory system, blood supply system and blood transfusion system in Pakistan. Blood transfusion authorities have been revived throughout the country while a network of modern regional blood centres supporting hospital based blood banks has been developed and the associated supporting technical work was conducted including capacity building, voluntary blood donation promotion, revising legislation, curriculum development, advocacy etc.
The first phase of the project was successfully completed in 2016 in which a network of large modern regional blood centers was developed to create a new blood supply system. These centres have started to become operational and are providing direct benefit to the patients in the shape of safe blood components through hospital blood banks which have been renovated by the project.
The blood supply and blood transfusion system has been strengthened along with the regulation system reformation. The second phase of the project was started in 2016 in which the scope and coverage of the project will be further expanded, through continued German government support, with the creation of more regional blood centres supporting the linked hospital blood banks and the up-gradation of large public sector blood centers as well as strengthening of the regulatory system.
