Karachi: Health Secretary Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho and Wolfgang Moellers, the director of the KfW, inaugurated a modern Regional Blood Centre in Jamshoro district on Wednesday. The facility has been constructed and equipped with the support of a German government grant of Rs.150 million through KFW Development Bank. Dr. Masuma Zaidi, the health sector coordinator for the KfW Pakistan; Dr. Abud Bari Khan, the CEO of the Indus Health Network; and Zahid Mahmood, the team leader at EPOS, were also present. The event was hosted by Indus Health Network in collaboration with Sindh Health Department. The Jamshoro Blood Centre is among the 10 Regional Blood Centres developed with the German government grant of Rs.2 billion (15 million Euro) through KfW as part of the establishment of a nationwide network. Besides, up-grades have been carried out at 59 existing hospital-based blood banks all over the country in the first phase of the Safe Blood Transfusion Project (SBTP). In the second phase of the project, the scope and coverage will be expanded with continued Germen support of Rs1.3 billion (10 million Euros). In Sindh, four RBCs – one each in Sukkur, Nawabshah, Jamshoro and Karachi – have been developed and 24 hospital blood banks provided new blood storage equipment with German grant of Rs600 million (5.2 million Euro). In Phase II, three public sector blood banks i.e. JPMC Karachi, Civil Hospital Karachi and Civil Hospital Korangi and up to two NGO blood banks will be upgraded and strengthened with German grant of Rs87 million (0.674 million Euro). Speaking on the occasion, the health secretary expressed his appreciation for the German government and KfW for the gift of four Regional Blood Centres to the people of the Sindh. He appreciated German delegation for especially coming to Jamshoro for the inauguration ceremony and committed full support for smooth functioning of the new facility, and the implementation of the blood programme in the province. The secretary promised to operationalise the remaining two RBCs of Nawabshah, and Karachi in coming months. To achieve high quality and maintain standards, he said the management of the Jamshoro Regional Blood Centre would be outsourced to Indus Health Network, under the private-public-partnership. He said that Sindh was the only province in the country where four modern RBCs were established with financial assistance of the German government through KfW. The KfW country director congratulated the secretary and his team for their keen interest in the implementation of the project as well as for organising the inauguration ceremony in Jamshoro. He expressed the hope that these centers would herald a new era of blood safety for the people of Sindh. He termed the Safe Blood Transfusion Project a ‘success story’ and appreciated the untiring efforts of the federal and provincial governments in making the project a success. He urged the Sindh government to immediately operationalise the RBCs of Nawabshah and Karachi, and to establish strong linkages between RBCs and HBBs. In his remarks, Dr. Zahid Hasan Ansari, the secretary of the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority, thanked the German government, KfW, and assured full operationalisation of all four facilities. He also thanked the health secretary for his keen interest in the project and the support he had extended for the operationalisation of the RBCs. He said that without German government’s generous support, ‘we may not have modern RBCs in Sukkur, Nawabshah, Jamshoro and Karachi and modern equipment in our 24 hospital blood banks of Sindh’. The Sindh government has taken responsibility for running the facilities and has contributed Rs.252 million for staffing, consumables, utilities, and eight cold chain vehicles and other operating costs. The Sindh government will provide annual running cost of over Rs.175 million for these four RBCs. Dr. Abdul Bari Khan, the CEO of the Indus Health Network, thanked the Sindh government for putting its trust and confidence in the Indus Health Network and giving the management of RBC to Indus. He assured supply of safe blood products/components to the attached hospitals, following international quality standards. He requested health practitioners and health managers to cooperate with RBC Jamshoro management for rationale use of blood and blood components and establishment of strong linkages with RBC. Published in Daily Times, May 17th 2018.