The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) renewed its collaboration with the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) on Saturday, June 10, to help more Filipino patients.
(Courtesy of Philippine Red Cross)
PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard Gordon said at a meeting with PHC officials that the organization is enforcing its partnership with PHC to provide an accessible and stable blood supply for patients at the hospital.
"PRC always pursues avenues to reach out to more people and help them. No obstacle can hinder us from exhausting ways to alleviate the burden of people. Typhoons, disasters, pandemics, or any challenge cannot stop us from helping people, as we have continuously shown through almost eight decades of committed service.
"We bring what people need no matter what happens, and with that, we want to bring blood to a larger group of people who desperately need it," Gordon said, noting that PRC blood is always available when PHC runs out of supply.
"We survive by the generosity and trust of our blood donors. We cannot bring replacement donors to the hospital because it is not under our charter. Our mission is to help Filipinos in need, and in this case, to those who need our blood supply," he emphasized.
Gordon pointed out that "helping those in need is in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath of doctors."
The PRC Secretary-General Gwendolyn T. Pang, said that it is essential for the PRC to connect with hospitals to make it easier for most Filipinos to get medical care.
"PRC works with hospitals like the PHC to provide blood immediately required for medical and surgical procedures," Pang said. She added that PRC is committed to helping patients who struggle financially and logistically to get blood.
"We want to make blood available to every Filipino in dire need of it and free them from the additional burden of shelling out significant amounts of money in exchange for blood," she added.
To present, PRC has served 90,788 patients and collected a total of 221,665 units of blood. (Rhowen Del Rosario)