The Blood Bank on 21 Slipe Pen Road in Kingston. - photos by Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Officials of the Blood Bank could face disciplinary action as the health ministry responds to the embarrassing development which saw some collection centres having to turn away blood donors over the past week.

The collection centres had run out of blood bags and could not accept donations.

An obviously upset Health Minister Rudyard Spencer yesterday vowed to take action.

"I don't suffer embarrassment for people easily and, yes, I was embarrassed and we are doing something about it. Somebody will have to pay," Spencer declared at a media briefing in Kingston.

"I was given advice in the morning and that advice turned out to be false in the afternoon and somebody will be held accountable," Spencer added.

'Eat his words'

The health minister was forced to 'eat his words' on Tuesday after he initially denied a Gleaner report about a shortage of blood bags and the reagent needed to test collected blood.

Facing the media yesterday, Spencer argued that the health ministry had done nothing wrong and the blame should be placed at the feet of officials of the Blood Bank.

"Why is it that they have a vast amount of bags in the system that are outdated? Why is it that a red flag was not triggered when we were coming up to deadline?" asked Spencer.

The minister refused to speculate on who might be punished for the foul-up, saying he would rather wait on the result of an audit slated to begin next Monday.

"Action will be taken but I'm not the person to get up and take action just like that ... I don't want to prejudice what the auditors will find."

According to Spencer, the health ministry was not informed until there was a crisis, even though the Blood Bank had sought and was granted permission for emergency procurement of the bags as far back as late August.

Spencer also rejected reports that the bags were not supplied because the overseas suppliers are owed millions of dollars.

Inventory issue

He was supported by Dr Jean Dixon, permanent secretary in the health ministry, who argued that the problem was an issue of inventory management.

"It has nothing to do with the payment arrangement. As the minister indicated, there was an emergency procurement procedure that was triggered and the order was placed on the 26th of August," Dixon said.

She said a portion of the order arrived in the island by air on September 29, with the balance scheduled to arrive by sea on November 5.

But that failed to happen and the health ministry yesterday disclosed that the shipment of 8,998 bags will not arrive until closer to the end of this month.

Dixon noted that the health ministry has assumed control of the procurement process of the Blood Bank in an effort to ensure that this is not repeated.

The Blood Bank yesterday received almost 1,000 bags from the government of Trinidad and Tobago which has come to its rescue.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

Health Minister Rudyard Spencer