Michael Gwarisa
In a move aimed at reducing costs related to blood and blood products, the Government of Zimbabwe says it is working on a plan to allow relatives and family members to donate blood for their loved ones on demand.
The Government says it is working on plans to ease the cost and improve access to blood transfusion services by expanding hospital-based blood processing and encouraging relatives of patients to donate blood directly.
The development was revealed in the National Assembly during a question-and-answer session when Senator Monica Mupfumira raised concerns over the high cost of blood, which she said currently exceeds USD200 per pint, despite blood donation being free in principle.
“Blood donation is free, but the National Blood Transfusion Services sells blood to the Government. What plans does the Government have to lighten the burden on the people?” she asked, adding that access should also be decentralised to ensure patients in different provinces can benefit.
In response, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Sleiman Kwidini, said Government had already begun reviewing the pricing structure and had reduced the estimated cost of a pint of blood to about USD80 following an internal audit.
He said authorities were also working to strengthen a more localised model of blood collection and processing, including allowing relatives of sick patients to donate blood directly at hospital level.
“At Parirenyatwa Hospital, we have started processing blood. When a relative is sick, another relative can donate blood and it can be processed at the hospital,” he said.
However, he noted that the initiative is still at a limited scale, currently concentrated at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, with plans underway to expand capacity to provincial hospitals across the country.
The Deputy Minister added that Government aims to complement the work of the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), which currently collects and processes blood centrally in Harare and operates with NGO support.
“We want to decentralise the programme to all provincial hospitals,” he said, adding that technical teams are assessing infrastructure and funding needs to scale up processing equipment nationwide.
Health experts often warn that Zimbabwe’s reliance on centralised blood processing can delay access in emergencies, particularly in rural areas. The proposed decentralisation and family-donor system is expected to reduce turnaround times and improve availability, though questions remain over sustainability, safety oversight, and financing.
A laboratory expert who spoke to HealthTimes said, “Family or relative-based blood donation can be safe if strict screening, matching, and infection testing protocols are followed, but it is not without significant limitations in a national blood system.”
They added that while the approach may help address shortages in emergency or localised settings, it raises concerns around consistency of supply, pressure on relatives during crises, and the risk of bypassing voluntary non-remunerated blood donation systems that are generally considered safer and more reliable for maintaining a stable national blood supply. The expert further noted that decentralised processing requires strong laboratory infrastructure, trained personnel, and robust quality assurance systems to avoid risks such as transfusion-transmissible infections and mismatched transfusions.
The move comes amid ongoing debates over the cost of blood and whether public health systems should take greater control of critical life-saving supplies.
If implemented, the reforms could mark a significant shift in Zimbabwe’s blood transfusion model, moving from a centralised NGO-led system toward a hybrid government-supported provincial network with increased community and family participation.
