What is the transfusion bus, and what is giving blood in it like?
A vehicle fitted out for collecting blood, which a blood service sends where people are: in front of a shopping centre or a church, in a town or a village. Giving blood in it is the same donation as at the institute, and the blood goes through the same tests. Where it stands, and for how long, is in the weekly schedule.
What it is
ZTKV's transfusion bus, the "transfuziomobil", is a vehicle made for collecting blood, with four chairs for donors and five places for the field team. It was handed over to the institute on 28 June 2019. ITKS lists some of its drives in its weekly plan as "autobus", a bus, at a shopping centre, a church or a village.
Why a bus
ZTKV says the bus lets drives be held more flexibly and more visibly, above all where there are no permanent conditions for collecting blood.
Is it the same donation
Yes. ZTKV says drives in the field are not a simplified kind of work but the institute's full professional process outside its building, and that blood collected in the field goes into the same strictly controlled processing, testing, storage and distribution as blood given at the institute. The steps are the ones in the guide: the questionnaire, the haemoglobin check, the doctor's check-up and the donation. Who can give is the same too: see who cannot give blood.
What to expect
- The bus stays for the hours in the schedule, usually a few, so come within them.
- ZTKV's has four chairs for donors, so a few people can give at once.
- Platelets are given only at the institutes, not at drives: how are platelets given.
- Come after a light meal and with enough to drink, as for any donation: what to eat.
Where it is this week
The institutes name the bus in the place: "Transfuziomobil" in ZTKV's schedule, "autobus" in ITKS's. The Next 7 days screen shows every such drive on the map, with its hours.