And quite rightly too, as that was the question that was asked... I only 'chipped in' as I know of those previous problems for people trying to obtain blood. I think it is good for us all to know of every possibility so we can prepare accordingly. I have certainly made a note of the facility you mention.
Me too Whirleybird, I've worked for more then 15 years for a blooddonor bank in Belgium. All the bloodbanks in Belgium and most European countries are runned by the Red Cross.
I asked the question because it seems to me very plain simple fact that when somebody needs blood, anybody, it should be available through the bloodbank...for free and donors should give their blood for free. Its a proven and very solid system that volunteers are more motivated and more "responsible" donors then paid donors.
Nevertheless, such system can only work if the bloodbank is able to screen donors well, have the latest new testing methods available and have proper storage facilities.
So, I do not know in how far such systems are already in place in the DR.
I am surely gonna look into the given adresses by LindsyKaufman and I will get back in this topic if I have some more information.
For sure, if a rare bloodtype such as AB- is needed and not immediately available or a special treated kind of blood such as irradiated blood or lots of platelets for example (liver transplant or patient with massive bleeding), also bloodbanks runned by the Red Cross would make a special announcement for the need at that moment.
What we alway's did was make the announcement, volunteers showed up to donate and then we stored their information in a special databank so that whenever we encountered such a demand again, we could respond still more rapidely and we had already a massive amount of information from potential donors and blood results in the databank so things could go even faster then.
I will keep in touch!