Too much red tape
and too little official transparency are to blame for China’s continuing blood
shortage, according to a recent survey.
A majority of Chinese believe that health authorities’ reluctance to
address concerns over corruption and mismanagement in the country’s blood banks
has led to a recent decline in blood donations.
Fears over the safety of blood donation and frustration with a complex
and often ineffective system of compensation have also contributed to donors’
reluctance, the survey found.
The survey was conducted last month by China Youth News, the official
newspaper of the Communist Youth League, and included 2083 respondents.
When asked what factors were responsible for China’s current blood
shortage, 57.3 percent of those surveyed said that blood supplies were being
wasted on “numerous and trivial” medical procedures.
In addition, 56.2 percent cited difficulties in obtaining benefits for
blood donors.
Since monetary compensation for blood donation was outlawed in 1998,
China’s health authorities have promised free use of blood for donors and their
families in the event that they require a transfusion themselves.
But specific compensation plans differ in each of China’s provinces,
and a donor who has given blood in one province is ineligible to receive free
blood in a different province.
A substantial majority of respondents said that the blood shortage
reflects a “confidence shortage” in China’s health authorities, with 88.3
percent saying that distrust of blood banks and the Red Cross has contributed
to the decline in blood donors.
Many of those surveyed expressed concern over the effects of donation
on their own bodies.
Of those surveyed, 48.2 percent feared contracting disease or other
“pollution” as a result of donating blood, and 37.6 worried that donating blood
would have a negative effect on their overall health.
Misgivings over the safety of blood donation date back to a series of
blood contamination scandals in the 1990s, when HIV-AIDS infections were spread
among donors and recipients in several rural areas in central China.
Chinese medicinal beliefs have traditionally held that loss of blood
leads to a long-term weakening of the body, leaving a person more vulnerable to
illness.
Fewer than half of those surveyed said that they were willing to donate
blood themselves, with 45.5 percent saying that they would consider donating in
the future and 37.7 percent responding that they were unwilling.
But the percentage of willing potential donors among those surveyed is
far higher than the 0.1 percent of actual donors in 2011, according to
statistics from China’s Ministry of Health.
When asked how the blood shortage could be solved, 77.5 percent said
that more openness and greater accountability in collecting and distributing
blood would restore confidence and lead to an increase in donors.
In addition, 70.8 percent agreed that a unified nationwide system for
compensating blood donors would increase donation rates.
Michael Evans
Asian Correspondent
Business & Investment Opportunities
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