MOBILE BLOOD UNIT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 8

MOBILE BLOOD UNIT

SPECIAL TRUCK TO BE BUILT

TRANSFUSION SERVICE’S NEW VEHICLE

A large refrigerator with special properties, upholstered seats on opposite walls so designed that they can be converted into two beds, and a sink with a hot water system are some of the unusurl features of the body to be fitted to a large truck chassis by a Christchurch firm of motor builders. The vehicle Will be the mobile blood unit for the North Canterbury centre of the National Blood Transfusion Service, which will use it for donors in areas away from the city. An appeal for funds to provide a mobile unit Was launched last year and. at the annual meeting m May this year, it yras announced that more than £2OOO had been received. The unit has been designed by a Christchurch expert to meet the following requirements: it must be self-contained as to equipment; it must carry the full team of nine or ten; and it must be able, in emergency, to bleed or ad minister blood on two couches in the vehicle.

A standard truck chassis with a lon wheel base —13ft Ilin—has been or dered, and when the chassis arrive in Christchurch the'bodywork will h begun. The contract for the bodywor has been let to the firm of G. B. Me Whinnie and Co., Ltd.

The body will be divided into two compartments, with a double door at the back and a single door in the side of the forward compartment. The smaller rear compartment will contain most of the unit’s equipment, stored in specially-designed drawers. Donors will be bled in the front compartment, which will be finished with such refinements as plastic wallboard and sponge rubber upholstery. The front transverse seat is to be so arranged, according to the specifications for the bodywork, “that it shall slide forward with part of the back squab to form a bed 26 inches wide. ’Hie wheel arch seats shall be so arranged that they slide forward together with the back squabs to form a In this compartment will be the refrigerator, a cabinet with internal dimensions of 3ft 4in by Ift 9in x Ift 9in for which strict specifications have been laid down. It is essential in the storage of blood to keep temperature fluctuations within a very small range—36 degrees to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The refrigerator is required to maintain this temperature within the cabinet “while the van is in transit between the depot ana the place of operation as a minimum period of six hours.” Storage for 120 pints of blood in standard bottles packed in wire crates will be provided. . - A plug and a long flex will enable the refrigerator to be connected to the electricity supply at the depot or the place of operation. The refrigerator will be sent in an insulated eutectic tank containing a special fluid which keeps the temperature down.