National Blood Transfusion Service on lookout for new refrigerator system

Director of the National Blood Transfusion Service Dr. Lakshman Edirisinghe recently expressed concerns about the high maintenance costs associated with the existing blood bank refrigerators, which are over 15 years old.

Speaking to the media in Colombo, Dr. Edirisinghe said that despite this issue, the National Blood Transfusion Service has ample storage capacity to meet the demand for blood.The storage of blood components relies on various equipment, including blood refrigerators, plasma freezers, and platelet agitators. While they have sufficient ultra-low temperature (ULT) refrigerators that were previously used for storing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, the ULT freezers responsible for storing blood units at -20°C and -40°C are more than 15 years old.

Although some of these freezers, running for over 20 years, are still in good working condition, managing service agreements for such old freezer equipment across the 109 blood banks in the country has become challenging, he said.

The absence of service agreements forces the National Blood Transfusion Service to bear significant maintenance costs for the ULT freezers. Additionally, due to the economic downturn, the importation of various items, including spare parts for the ULT freezers, has been banned.

As a result, Dr. Edirisinghe emphasized the need for a new freezer system, acknowledging the challenges associated with acquiring one. However, the Treasury has provided the necessary funds to address this issue, and the National Blood Transfusion Service is currently preparing a proposal to request a new freezer system to meet future requirements.