LEGAZPI CITY, Albay (PIA) --The supply of blood needed for vital medical procedures in Bicol has reached the critical level, prompting the Department of Health-Bicol Center for Health Development to sound the alarm on the need to conduct mobile blood donation drives within the first three months of 2023.

In an advisory, Laboratory Administrator Alan Lucañas said "the current status of blood supply at Bicol South Luzon Sub National Reference Laboratory ( BSL-SNRL) Blood Center is critically low."

The dire level of blood supply was "due to the fact that there are still no scheduled Mobile Blood Donations (MBD) at the start of January 2023 and less scheduled MBDs in the coming weeks," Lucañas said.

Addressing the blood services networks in the provinces of Albay, Catanduanes, Masbate and Sorsogon, Lucañas said: "With this, kindly advise the relatives of patients in need of blood to bring donors to the blood center to supply their request for blood units."

To increase the blood supply, Lucañas encouraged all blood service facilities to conduct their MBD on the first and fourth quarters of the year.

These periods are lean months for blood stocks, Lucañas said.

"We will issue another advisory once the status of the blood supply at BSL-SNRL Blood Center is already stable," he added. (PIA-5)