Serbia

Serbia, with 7,186,862 million inhabitants, is divided in three regions: North, South and Central Region. The Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia (BTIS) and 24 hospital based blood establishments are in charge of the blood collection in the Central Region, occupied by 3.852.581inhabitants (53.7% of the total number of inhabitants in the Central Region). A total of 127.453 blood units are collected from citizens in this region.
BTIS is the largest blood transfusion establishment in the country, collecting 27.4 % of the total quantity of blood collected in Serbia. It is located in Belgrade the leading health care and protection center in Serbia. All highly specialized medical care establishments are located in Belgrade and thus, all most severe patients needing sophisticated and complex medical care and treatment are taken care of in Belgrade. That is why the BTIS is the most significant transfusion center responsible for providing sufficient quantity of safe blood.
BTIS collects around 65 thousand units of blood on the annual basis, both in Belgrade and by mobile teams in cities of the Central Region of Serbia. In order to cover all needs for blood, BTIS is supplied with around 10.000 blood units from other transfusion establishments.
In total, Serbia collects around 245.000 units of blood each year. In total, there are three major regional blood transfusion establishments and 36 hospital based blood banks in charge of collection, testing, processing and distribution of blood and blood components. In accordance with the Act on Transfusion Medicine adopted in May 2017, the objective is to make transition from 36 to totally three to five main collection, testing, processing and distribution centers.
The Red Cross of Serbia is the main partner of the national blood transfusion service, with over 180 local Red Cross secretaries whose task is promotion of voluntary blood donation and organisation of blood drives on the local level.