Speech Opening of the Blood Service's Blood Donor Centre - Adelaide - 5 September 2012
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5 September 2012
Thank you for inviting me to be here today for this important ceremony.
The opening of this new facility in the heart of Adelaide means the donor centre is more accessible to the Adelaide community.
Making it easier to donate blood will help the Blood Service to meet projected growth in demand for blood and blood products.
This means that millions of cancer patients, road trauma victims, burn victims, patient undergoing emergency surgeries and people on renal dialysis will have access to blood and blood products.
The Blood Service needs to collect around 1.4 million donations to meet the growing demand for blood and blood products, which is a figure which keeps growing each year.
At the moment we rely on the generous donations of more than 600,000 donors.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those blood donors.
Your time and commitment to this cause is greatly appreciated by so many in this country.
It is only through your generosity and community spirit that blood and blood products are available to all Australians in need.
The Australian Government considers the personal donation of time and blood by donors a life-changing gift.
But we can always use more donations and I encourage all those who are eligible to contact the Blood Service and donate.
The Australian and South Australian governments work together to ensure a secure blood supply.
I would like to acknowledge the achievements of the Blood Service in assisting the National Blood Authority to improve the safety and security of supply of blood and blood products for all Australians.
Blood is a precious resource that we all need to ensure is used as effectively and safely as possible.
As part of the effort to improve the appropriateness of use, a number of initiatives have been undertaken by the National Blood Authority, in partnership with the clinical community.
One was the review of the 2001 National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Use of Blood Components, which has resulted in the production of six modules that form a comprehensive, evidence based, Patient Blood Management Guideline.
Of these modules, both the critical bleeding/massive transfusion and perioperative modules have been published, with the medical module due to be published this month.
In addition, the publication of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards in September 2011 as part of the National Health Reforms complements these clinical practice guidelines.
These initiatives ensure health services implement changes to ensure the safe, appropriate, efficient and effective use of blood and blood products.
The Australian government looks forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the Blood Service to provide a world-class blood supply to all Australians and in doing so achieve the best value for money from the significant public investment in the Blood Service each year.
ENDS
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