In Mongolia, the first blood donation was officially documented in 1938 when a physician at the State Central Hospital donated his blood to a patient. Thus Blood Transfusion Service was established in 1963. National Center for Transfusion Medicine is located in Ulaanbaatar capital city conducting its activities under the administration of Ministry of Health. The NCTM is providing reference blood transfusion cares and services nationwide thought its 26 local blood centers throughout the country in 21 provinces. Our Center is the only institution which has special permissions from the government to collect and store blood, do analysis on donor blood and produce blood products to provide and deliver to hospitals. The NCTM is also accredited for health care and services.           

Since 2008, the NCTM has been implementing the “National Policy on Increasing the Supply of Donor Blood and Blood Products and Improving Safety” approved by the Resolution No111 of Parliament of Mongolia in 2008 with The Action Plan 2008-2015 on the implementation of the national policy. The Donor Law of Mongolia was revised and approved on January, 2018 by Mongolian Parliament, the Grand Khural.

As a nationwide organization, we have a vision to become one of the leading blood transfusion organizations in Asia. In order to achieve this goal, we are focusing more on equipping our team with the necessary skills to use advanced medical technologies and innovations to provide demand based care and services. By 2018, 44.4% of blood service workers are employed at the NCTM facility and 55.6% of them are working in the local centers in the countryside of Mongolia. 39.7% of our employees obtained the highest level of academic qualifications for medical professionals and doctorate degrees in medical sciences.

We are very thankful for now we can officially announce that all the blood donations are made by VNBDs only, since 2016. The NCTM has implemented several standards in its operations successfully, such as Laboratory Standard MNS ISO 15189:2015, since 2015, Quality Management Systems Standard MNS ISO 9001:2016, since 2017, and Occupational Health and Safety Management System OHSAS 18001:2007/MNS and OHSAS 18001:2012, since November, 2018.

The following technologies have been introduced for the last 5 years: The Pathogen Inactivation Technology, X-ray Irradiation, Freeze and Storage Red Cell in Glycerol,  “Walk in room” at +2+6C, -30-40C, and Rapid Freezing Devices in Production Site. The next generation of fully integrated and automated real-time PCR for molecular testing of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV, Chromogenic kinetic analyse technology for blood coagulation test, the 6th generation technology for immunohematology testing of transfusion and transplantation diagnostics and automated microbial detection system for BBP in Labs.

As a host organization of XV Annual Congress of AATM in 2019, the NCTM team will be doing our best with gladness to make the congress as a success. Welcome to Mongolia and NCTM!