Employees of a major hotel in the Eastern Province donated blood to help cancer patients in the region.

More than 60 workers of the InterContinental Hotel in Alkhobar organized a regular blood donation campaign recently under the leadership of Josef Sorger, regional GM of all Eastern Province IHG Hotels.

Sorger led the voluntary donors during the campaign. An official from the hotel told Arab News that this was the third campaign this year. “Our wish is to donate at least 75 liters of blood during this year,” he noted, adding that the collection was sent to King Fahd Specialist Hospital, which treats oncology patients and provides treatment and surgery for cancer, tumors, liver and kidney transplants.

The Alkhobar hotel is one of the regular donors of blood to King Fahd Specialist Hospital Dammam since 2009.

Following a decree in 1405H, the Ministry of Health does not import blood from foreign countries.

They are collected from the citizens and residents who make voluntary donation of their blood regularly. The twenty health directorates in the Kingdom make their own arrangements with the voluntary blood donors to contribute to this cause.

An ministry official stressed that the blood banks are able to provide any quantity of quality blood groups at the moment.

The official said there are 152 blood banks throughout the Kingdom, which include 15 central blood banks, 17 large blood banks and 120 more to cover all the regions and governorates.

A standard health screening procedure was carried out prior to the extraction of blood. Each donor underwent tests for blood pressure, glucose and hemoglobin count prior to the donation. The checks also included for communicable diseases.