BEIJING - The Ministry of Health on Tuesday issued a regulation to promote the efficient use of donated blood amid increasing pressure on the country's blood reserves.
The regulation, to become effective August, will help to reduce wasting of blood resources and promote the capability and accessibility of medical services, said Guo Yanhong, vice director of the ministry's medical administration division.
The regulation banned acts such as hospitals calculating its income from blood transfusions as a gauge of work performance and stipulated fines and other punishments for violators.
Guo also called for more blood donations from the public.
Official statistics show that about 2.99 million people made voluntary, non-remunerated blood donations from January to March in the Chinese mainland, excluding , marking a year-on-year rise of 6.6 percent.
However, the country's blood reserves are still under pressure as demand for blood in medical services is increasing rapidly, Guo said.
In 2011, the numbers of outpatients and inpatients in China have increased by 430 million and 11.24 million, respectively, from 2010.
It is estimated that by 2015, the country will need about 60,000 to 70,000 new blood donations every day to satisfy blood demand in medical services, the official said.
The World Health Organization recommended 100 to 300 out of every 10,000 people in a country donate blood, whereas on the Chinese mainland, only 90 of every 10,000 people donate.
In Beijing, over 4 million people have donated blood since the promulgation of the current law on blood donation in 1998, said Liu Jiang, director of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center on Tuesday.
Two out of every 100 Beijing residents have donated blood, and the blood center also registered over 500 foreigners making blood donations in Beijing, Liu said.
