Complete blood count

Complete blood counts (CBC) are done to monitor overall health, to screen for some diseases, to confirm a diagnosis of some medical conditions, to monitor a medical condition, and to monitor changes in the body caused by medical treatments. For patients who need blood transfusion, a blood count may be used to get data which would help plan an amount of treatment. This makes the CBC a vital piece of equipment but they are extremely expensive and starting at over £3000 most clinics cannot afford them and patients have to visit large hospitals which are not only costly but incurs transport costs. Everyday Herona Hospital get 1-5 patients requiring a blood count, they all have to be referred to other hospitals. There is no other CBC in the sub county. Thanks to the amazing generosity of Kathy Green and her family, Herona lab technician Winnie can now offer this service to all our patients. Not only can we now provide the community with a vital service, Garvin is careful to price the service so it is cheaper than large city hospitals but able to help pay the staff like Winnie for their expertise, buy new reagents, pay for electricity and maintenance. The biggest struggle is to make the hospital self sustaining, equipment and services like a CBC machine help our hospital with sustainability. The staff helped me identify the CBC machine as the number one piece of equipment needed but I never dreamt it would be installed before I left. Garvin, Winnie and all at Herona would like to extend a very big thank you to Kathy and the family.