The 12th Annual Conference of the Blood Bank Society of Nigeria, Lagos branch, which was held on November 21st, 2024, with the theme: Blood banking and transfusion services, the heart of the healthcare delivery system, was a convergence of both public and private blood service providers, including clinicians, students, and academia.

Aimed at strengthening collaboration among stakeholders in the field of transfusion medicine, the conference saw an array of speakers, from practicing clinicians to researchers, bankers, and government.

Keynote speaker, Professor Abiodun Iwalokun, took the conference participants through the importance of blood banking and transfusion medicine in the Nigerian healthcare system, ending his speech with a specific call for blood service providers to strengthen collaboration with clinicians at the hospital level as a safeguard and quality assurance measure in ensuring lives are saved through transfusions and not lost.

Mrs. Ikwo Oka of Trauma Care International Foundation (TCIF) elucidated on the need to create a service partnership between blood suppliers and transfusion providers that is built on access, cost, and quality (ACQ). She stressed the need for initiatives, including information, education, and communication programs, to be undertaken at the local, regional, and national level to enhance service partnerships. Locally, blood suppliers and transfusion providers (blood banks) must re-evaluate policies that are focused on individual gain and reinvent policies that will reward improvements in the overall system and expand cooperative services.

Conference sub-themes and speakers included:

  1. Pioneering the path and shaping the future of blood services in Nigeria: Way forward for BBSN—Dr. Bodunrin Osikomaiya, Executive Secretary, Lagos State Blood Transfusion Commission (LSBTC)
  2. Strengthen private blood banking practice towards mega blood banking: Business point of View- Dr. Abiodun Hamzat
  3. Blood banking information system, the role of information technology (IT)-Eyo Offiong Eyo
  4. Blood banking and the law—from the medicological prism—Barrister Emeka Anolefo
  5. Logistics in blood banking synergy between the service provider and blood bank facilities, Mrs. Ikwo Oka
  6. Blood safety and advocacy: Dr. Samuel Alori, Head Monitoring and Enforcement, Lagos State Blood Transfusion Committee