Staff from the hospital’s renal unit yesterday repaid part of its debt to the transfusion unit, which replenishes it with lifesaving blood every day.

Some 12 nurses, nursing aides and technicians donated blood between Sunday and yesterday as part of an initiative to remember kidney patients worldwide.

Held on the second Thursday of March, World Kidney Day is a global health awareness campaign to reduce kidney disease and its associated health problems.

“It is another way of saying thank you to the blood bank for its service,” unit nursing officer Paul Calleja told this newspaper.

Nursing officer Paul Calleja, Lorraine Micallef, Lorraine Falzon and Joseph Baldacchino. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The renal unit, which treats some 65 patients every day, needs six units of blood daily. Under normal circumstances, kid­neys secrete a hormone that increases the production of red blood cells. If the kidneys do not work correctly this production is low, leading to a reduction in haemoglobin.

There are synthetic injections that control haemoglobin levels, but in some patients the situation is so bad that they need a blood transfusion. Apart from kidney patients, donated blood is used by cancer patients and also during operations.

While surgeries may be postponed if there is a shortage of donated blood, transplant operations cannot wait.

Mr Calleja, who is the hospital’s transplant coordinator, said that without sufficient blood, the transplant could not be performed and the donor organ would be lost. Last week, two kidneys and a heart donated by the same person were transplanted in Malta, while a liver was sent to the UK where it was transplanted in fewer than seven hours.

On average four blood units are used for every kidney transplant, while six are used for a heart transplant. Speed is essential with transplants, so blood needs to be readily available, said Mr Calleja.

Men can donate up to four times yearly and women up to three times until menopause.

Donors between 18 and 68 must produce their ID card, and 17-year-olds can download a permission form from  www.blood.gov.mt, which must be signed by their parent or guardian. For details see www.facebook.com/bloodmalta.