Hospital registers new donors in blood drive

(CNS): The Health Services Authority recruited 38 new donors during the weekend blood drive and took blood from more than 30 previous donors. Pleased with the results, staff explained that the hospital is always in need of blood and continues to encourage people to come in and donate whenever they can. Meanwhile, the HSA is teaming up for the rest of this week with Cayman AIDS Foundation and the Red Cross to provide free HIV Testing and counselling at the hospital and district clinics.

During the weekend blood donor drive celebrating World Blood Donor Day, hospital staff also registered individuals for the new Patient Portal.  The portal is a free service allowing patients to get online access to test results and other medical history, request and cancel appointments and send a secure message to the HSA care team.

“We were pleased to have repeat donors come and donate in addition to the newly registered individuals,” said Judith Clarke, HSA Laboratory Manager. “This year’s theme was ‘Thank you for saving my life’ which highlights why it is so important to donate. One pint of blood can save up to three lives.”

This week the community is being encouraged to know their HIV status by taking a free test as part of the international and regional HIV testing week. Health officials said that HIV counselling and testing is an important entry point to comprehensive  HIV prevention and treatment programs and services. Counselling and testing programmes provide an opportunity for more people to know their HIV status, for the at risk clients to receive risk reduction counselling and support to stay negative, and for HIV infected client to be referred early into treatment and care programmes.

Special arrangements have been implemented to facilitate speedy and confidential test where no appointment is necessary, and the waiting time is usually no more than ten minutes with results available in three working days.

For more information about HIV Testing Week, contact HIV/AIDS Coordinator Laura Elniski  at 244-2507 or laura.elniski@hsa.ky or Health Promotion Officer Therese Prehay at 244-2632 or therese.prehay@hsa.ky. For a full schedule and list of free HIV testing sites, go to www.hsa.ky

Anyone interested in becoming a blood donor or scheduling an appointment to donate, please call 345-244-2612 or 345-326-2971.