Is it fair that we pay for blood in the hospital?

Question

Yet they collect the blood free because people donate.

They charge up to R5 000.00 for a pint.

Answer 1

What? That can not be true. I donated blood to save lives, not for them to make a bloody business out of it. Blood donors should boycott them but it might cost a life. Where did you get this information from?

If somebody does not have money. do they allow them to bleed to death? I can't imagine that.

Answer 2

If you are a donor the blood is free that is how it used to be. Do blood donors pay now?

If you are not a donor  I think a reasonable charge is OK.  

Just because people donate ,one is not entitled to get things free.

When there is a blood drive more people should donate .Some part of our society do not donate blood but would like to get it free.The irony is one never knows if it is White ,Black, Coloured or Indian blood that you receive.

Answer 3

That is pretty standard world wide, Ayisa. Donations of all manner make life for all easier. See Pagan Dan's entry. If you give blood you do not put conditions on it. I would question your amount of R5000 though. That does sound excessive and it doesn't sound like what was happening when I was there and that was only 5 years ago. If you are correct, and be sure you are, I would be getting petitions up against whoever is responsible for putting such a price on it.

While I have never had it itemized on a bill when I was given blood, I assume it is included in the price of having my life saved. Of course, I live in a country that has universal medicare.

Answer 4

I do think it is a lot. But then if you look at the cost involved in it it is sort of understandable. Testing does cost a bit. The mojor thing is transportation, now you think how is it possable, most blood is trasferd by aircraft: Purchase price $40mil, hourly running cost R15000 ph, time on ground 500 pd, crew R120000-150000 pm.

I know you can have blood stored if you have a operation and you might need blood eg hart trasplant at a lower cost.

Answer 5

My first reaction was to think :Ag Ayiza and his culture of non-payment ! But R5 000 is excessive  ! I know that there is a lot of tests that is expensive , Separating machines to separate plasma and platelets and specialized transporters aren't cheap either .  Yes ,I think one should pay but they must work out a system where regular donars is ''rewarded'' once they need blood as well ! Good question for a change !

Answer 6

If you donate you get blood for free. If you dont donate you have to pay.

I dont donate so I know I will have to pay if I ever need it.

Also there was a shortage in April school holidays so maybe thats why it costs more.

Glad to see granny above only paid R20. I hope other people have such good experience at gov. hospitals.

Answer 7

As mentioned , the costs of screening , seperating , storing , transporting , etc is very expensive.

SANBS itself is a non-profit organisation but hospitals are not , so they obviously put a mark-up on the "product" which can be anything from 10% to 100% or more, the hospital also charges for their "labour" etc...

I volunteer and donate at a "mobile" blood clinic 4 times a year. They say that the costs are so high therefore they cannot afford to pay for the blood  and also to prevent people from abusing the system just for money.

I was also aware that regular donors (and their children under 16) dont have to pay , i had a transfusion a few years ago and didnt pay and my daughter needed a transfusion when she was born and we didnt pay(Dec 2006) , but you have to inform the hospital that you are a donor and give them your donor number to verify with SANBS  but maybe that has changed , i will have to find out....

Answer 8

I have questioned this many times.

We donate for free - so why should we pay for it.

The reason why we pay for it is as follows:

Handling, Transportation, testing, storage etc.

How can this add up to R5K per pint - beats the h**l out of me, but everytime I have questioned any kind of medical pricing, I normally get an answer somewher along these lines:

Doctors charge so much because of the amount of time that they spent studying, most University graduates have already been working for at least 2 years before Doctors even start earning anything in their profession - so they have the right to charge so much - they need to "Catch up withe the Jones'"

Answer 9

I think you get a discount if you are a regular donor, but I'm not sure about my facts here.

It's obvious that there are costs involved with screening and handling, but R5 000 is quite a lot. And if HIV testing is so expensive, it must be that accurate too. So why do so many people get HIV from blood transfusions?

Answer 10

Transfusion costs exceed blood acquisition costs by four times or greater when accounting for labour, supplies, administration and adverse events.

Answer 11

It doesn't seem fair, at first look, to charge for a donated product.  However, there is considerable expense involved in screening and testing the blood, especially with HIV and God knows what running around.

Your question is kind of like asking is it fair to charge for wine made from donated grapes.

Answer 12

Why did you have to pay for blood?

If you go through the State Hospital System, you actually pay nothing at all for blood.

I was hospitalized for an operation less than 6 months ago, and  needed 5 units of blood.

I went through the State Hospital System and was given access to a hospital bed and Specialist treatment for the grand sum of R20.00 !!!

I STAYED FOR 7 DAYS AND WAS OPERATED ON, RECEIVED THE BLOOD, excellent food, treatment by a group of specialists and all for only R20.

I doubt that any other country can beat that

Answer 13

its just another form of human trafficking..making money out of something they dont have to use and exploiting the ignorant and disadvantaged to make more money