Kunming short on blood supply

Hospitals in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, have been forced to postpone 90% of scheduled surgeries due to a shortage of blood donations, state media reported. At present Kunming has only 20,000 milliliters of blood, far below the minimum 400,000 ml it needs to maintain for a city of 6 million people. The city’s hospitals have mainly relied on blood donated from college students and migrant workers, but donations have dropped off now that the colleges have relocated to a new suburban area where there are no blood donation outlets. The Kunming Blood Center said it will dispatch blood bank vehicles to outside counties to collect more blood and open more outlets in the new district. The Center has also called on the public to come forward and donate blood. The report emphasized that over 99% of clinical blood supply in China comes from voluntary donors.