Suspicions rampant on popular internet forum following three urgent appeals
EMILY.TSANG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Tuesday, 10 May, 2016, 8:00am
The organisation’s building in Admiralty. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Hong Kong Red Cross will not provide blood to mainland hospitals, the organisation said after internet users on a popular internet forum urged the public to boycott blood donations.
Discussions on Golden Forum suggested it was suspicious of the organisation to announce a shortage for the third time this year and suspected it would send its supply of local blood to the mainland.
But the Red Cross clarified that its appeals were necessary, contending the lack of blood donations in the city stemmed from a prolonged flu season and more would-be donors being found unfit.
Recent extreme weather and examination periods for school children also meant there was a dip in the number of volunteers.
The organisation said it needed an average of 1,100 donors a day, in order to supply around 800 bags of blood to the city’s public hospitals.
“All the blood collected from our service supply is for local use,” said Dr Lee Cheuk-kwong, a consultant of Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service.
Typically about 10 per cent of new blood donors were unfit to donate due to their low blood pressure or lack of haemoglobin, the latter a result of poor eating and living habits.
In addition, those who displayed flu symptoms would not be allowed to donate, and a long flu period this year starting in January rendered fewer people qualified.
The Red Cross was also unable to send outreach teams to secondary schools to carry out blood donation campaigns due to the Diploma of Secondary Education examination periods, Lee said.
The group predicted a total of 244,000 bags of blood and 18,300 bags of platelets would be needed to meet local hospitals’ demand this year.
It issued an urgent appeal for blood on January 19, April 6 and April 29, saying low inventories had reached an alarming level.
However, internet users on Golden Forum raised their suspicions concerning the Red Cross, a non-government humanitarian organisation embroiled in a money donation scandal in China, and it urged the public to stop donating.
In a discussion generating over 100 comments, a user who claimed to be a regular donor said he would now stop.
Another said: “Hong Kong Red Cross has a very complex relationship with its mainland counterpart. I am very suspicious about where the blood goes.”
But many users said a boycott would mean there would not be enough blood to save themselves or their loved ones.
Lee rejected the suspicions. “None of our blood will supply other places,” he said. “A majority of it goes to public hospitals, usually for elderly people.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1942634/bad-blood-hong-kong-red-cross-clarifies-it-wont
