The Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) is a non-profit society providing blood services to the Western Cape province in South Africa. WCBS is a separate entity from the South African National Blood Service (SANBS).
Hospitals and clinics in the Western Cape need about 700 units of blood each day, according to the Western Cape's provincial government. [1] The WCBS is responsible for collecting and distributing the blood to hospitals, where transfusions are done by clinical staff. [2] In 2020, the service was collecting an average of 145 000 units of blood a year. [3]
The organization was founded in 1938 as the Cape Peninsula Blood Transfusion Service. [3] [4] [5] It operated its first mobile donation clinic in 1949. [3]
Also in 1949, the service changed its name to the Western Province Blood Transfusion Service. [2] [6] In 2019 it changed its name again, saying that the “new name is more accurate, as we do not carry out the transfusion of blood”. [2] [5]
The other eight South African provinces are serviced by the South African National Blood Service (SANBS). [7]
Cape Town is the oldest and second largest city in South Africa, after Johannesburg, and also the seat of the Parliament of South Africa.
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of 129,449 square kilometres (49,981 sq mi), and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020. About two-thirds of these inhabitants live in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, which is also the provincial capital. The Western Cape was created in 1994 from part of the former Cape Province. The two largest cities are Cape Town and George.
The Democratic Alliance is a South African political party and the official opposition to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The party is broadly centrist, and has been attributed both centre-left and centre-right policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network. The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and the present. The DA ideologically shows a variety of liberal tendencies, including social liberalism, classical liberalism, and conservative liberalism.
The South African Army is the ground warfare branch of South African National Defence Force. Its roots can be traced to its formation after the Union of South Africa was created in 1910. The South African military evolved within the tradition of frontier warfare fought by Boer Commando (militia) forces, reinforced by the Afrikaners' historical distrust of large standing armies. It then fought as part of the wider British effort in both World War I and World War II, but afterwards was cut off from its long-standing Commonwealth ties with the ascension to power of the National Party in South Africa in 1948. The army was involved in a long and bitter counter-insurgency campaign in Namibia from 1966 to 1990. It also played a key role in controlling sectarian political violence inside South Africa during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The South African Military Health Service is the branch of the South African National Defence Force responsible for medical facilities and the training and deployment of all medical personnel within the force. Though unusual, as most national militaries integrate their medical structures into their existing service branches, the SANDF regards this structure as being the most efficient method of providing care and support to the SANDF's personnel.
Local government in South Africa consists of municipalities of various types. The largest metropolitan areas are governed by metropolitan municipalities, while the rest of the country is divided into counties called district municipalities, each of which consists of several boroughs called local municipalities. Since the boundary reform at the time of the municipal election of 3 August 2016 there are eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 district municipalities and 205 local municipalities.
Port Elizabeth, officially renamed Gqeberha and colloquially often referred to as PE, is a major seaport city and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa's second-largest metropolitan district by area size. It is the sixth-most-populous city in South Africa and is the cultural, economic and financial centre of the Eastern Cape.
NHS Blood and Transplant is an executive non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom's Department of Health and Social Care. It was established on 1 October 2005 to take over the responsibilities of two separate NHS agencies: UK Transplant, founded by Dr. Geoffrey Tovey in 1972, and the National Blood Service. Its remit is to provide a reliable, efficient supply of blood, organs and associated services to the NHS. Since NHSBT was established, the organisation has maintained or improved the quality of the services delivered to patients, stabilised the rising cost of blood, and centralised a number of corporate services.
Nyanga is a township in the Western Cape, South Africa. Its name in Xhosa means "moon" and it is one of the oldest black townships in Cape Town. It was established as a result of the migrant labour system. In 1948 black migrants were forced to settle in Nyanga as Langa had become too small. Nyanga was one of the poorest places in Cape Town and is still is one of the most dangerous parts of Cape Town. In 2001 its unemployment rate was estimated at being approximately 56% and HIV/AIDS is a huge community issue.
Nepal Red Cross Society is an independent, volunteer-based and nonprofit-humanitarian organization that delivers humanitarian service and support to the vulnerable people in an impartial and neutral manner. It came into being on 4 September 1963. Nepal Red Cross Society was officially registered in Nepal after Nepal Government acceded to the Geneva Conventions. Having been recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and affiliated to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on 1 October 1964.
The Thai Red Cross Society is a major humanitarian organisation in Thailand, providing services as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa was opened in 1956 through public subscription as a memorial to soldiers lost in the Second World War. The suggestion that the memorial take the form of a children's hospital was proposed by Vyvyan U.T. Watson. Mr Watson, a prominent businessman, had lost his first born and only son, Peter Tennant Watson, at about four years old, to an outbreak of diphtheria in Cape Town. Mr Watson was a major force in steering the organization of the building of the hospital. The Peter Pan statue on the hospital grounds, sculpted by Ivan Mitford-Barberton, was donated by Mr Watson and his wife, Gwendolyn. Mr Watson was later President of the South African Red Cross Society. It is one of two dedicated children's public hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only a few dedicated children's hospitals in the Southern hemisphere.
Daniel Plato, better known as Dan Plato, is a South African politician and the former Mayor of Cape Town. He previously held the position for two nonconsecutive term from May 2009 until June 2011 and again from November 2018 until October 2021. From June 2011 to October 2018, he was a Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and the Western Cape Provincial Minister of Community Safety.
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is a non-profit organisation that provides human blood for transfusion that operates in South Africa, with the exception of the Western Cape, which has its own blood service. The head office of the SANBS is in Constantia Kloof, Gauteng, near Johannesburg, but there are blood collection operations in eight of the nine provinces. Western Cape has a separate blood centre, the Western Cape Blood Service. SANBS was founded in 2001 from a merger of seven blood centres, and was embroiled in controversy in 2004 over a policy of racial profiling for blood safety.
Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) is a large, provincial, government-funded hospital situated in the Mdantsane township near East London, Eastern Cape in South Africa. It is a tertiary teaching hospital and forms part of the East London Hospital Complex with Frere Hospital. It is named after Cecilia Makiwane, the first African woman to become a professional nurse in South Africa.
Dunoon is a large township in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The first erf for Dunoon was surveyed in 1996. As formal housing was built, shacks developed rapidly.
Karl Bremer Hospital is a hospital, situated in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. It was opened in 1956 with one ward. It was originally an academic hospital for medical students of Stellenbosch University and was utilised for this purpose until 1976, after which it changed to a hospital catering for private patients.
Helen Joseph Hospital is a public hospital based in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to 1997, it was known as the J.G. Strijdom Hospital. As a teaching hospital, its affiliated to the University of Witwatersrand's Medical School.