National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has swiftly moved in to cleared the air on the new blood prices that have been circulating on different social media platforms and made it clear that blood remains free in all government institutions and that they make no profit from blood and its products. Instead, blood prices have been reviewed upwards for private health institutions.
Patients from the privates health institutions will now have to part ways with a whooping $2 160 rtgs for a unit of blood following an adjustment to the user fees inline with the interbank rate.
In a press statement, NBSZ said blood and blood products remains free of charge to all non private medical wards in public health institutions.
“Blood and blood products can be accessed free of charge in Council hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo only. Hospitals are allowed to charge five percent administration fee on blood and its products, ” read the statement
The cost of producing a unit of blood is US$120 which is recovered at the prevailing rate. NBSZ made it clear that the price of blood has been the same for for the past five years to date and that they do not make any profit from blood.
“Its not different from the fee that is levied to private hospitals because the blood products are the exact same quality all round. Whilst blood is donated free, there is a value chain between its donation and transfusion to the patient and this value chain costs US$120, an amount that the NBSZ is recovering from the user in order to continue operating as a going concern,” read the statement.
“There is no profit that is made from blood and the financial statements for NBSZ are publicly available for scrutiny,” read the statement.
According to a leaked document from PSMI Lab West End Hospital, the prices of blood and its products were increased effective from December 1.
