KUNMING/BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Looking upward towards the ward ceiling with empty eyes, Ms. Chen was exhausted while waiting for lung surgery at No.1 People`s Hospital of Kunming City.

She was supposed to have surgery to remove the clot in her lung in late September, but she had to wait as the blood supplies in the hospital were not sufficient to provide the blood transfusions that would be required, over 1,000 cc, during her surgery, said Huang Guijie, Chen`s son.

To solve the problem, Huang mobilized his family and other relatives to donate blood before the surgery in early October.

Chen`s case is not unique in Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province.

Blood storage in the blood center was less than 20,000 cc, far less than the normal amount of 400,000 to 500,000 cc. Further, type-O blood amount was only 2,200 cc, which was a record low, said Yang Tonghai, director of the Yunnan Blood Center, which is the only provider for more than 260 hospitals in the city.

Additionally, all surgeries requiring blood transfusions of more than 600 cc had to be postponed unless they were emergencies, Yang said.

SALARY CUT VS. BLOOD CUT

Since August, blood shortages have occurred in the city`s blood center, and the situation worsened beginning in October when blood station workers received 80 percent salary cuts because of the salary system reform, insider sources told Xinhua.

"Every worker could be paid 20 yuan (3 U.S. dollars) per bag of blood (200 cc) they collected, however, since the reform our salary dropped from up to 10,000 yuan per month to a mere 2,000 yuan," said a worker at the city`s blood center, who asked not to be named.

"We used to work very late to collect more blood, but now, disappointed what we have been paid, we just go home early every day," she said.

The salary reform in medical institutions is part of the policy released last year by the State Council, or the cabinet of China. The policy, in a bid to lower the costs of medical institutions and reduce the cost of patients, separated the salary of a medical worker into basic salary and performance bonuses which would all be borne by the government, said Chen Juemin, chief of the provincial health department.

Yunnan Province, which began the pilot reform last year, officially launched the project this month.

The policy ended the history of medical institutions having to shoulder all profits and losses themselves, and it`s supposed to raise the salary of medical workers and make it much less expensive for people to go to hospitals, said Chen.

However, as the blood station, which sold blood to hospitals that cost them nothing to collect, and used to provide the blood station with more than 10 million yuan per year, was deprived of the right of distributing bonuses, the salary of its workers was drastically cut, he said.

"They (blood station workers) always said our blood was not certified, sometimes without any reason. We felt very frustrated," said Wu Linyuan, a student at Yunnan University who was a regular donor.

Complaints from local people were also heard, saying a blood donation vehicle in Shilin County rejected their offer for donations.

"Why bother for the overwhelming promotion since no blood is accepted," said a potential donor who was just rejected.

DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY

Blood shortages are also being seen in other cities and provinces such as Beijing, Shandong, Shanxi and Jiangxi, and experts said it was caused by numerous reasons.x The salary reform prevented blood centers and stations, which had been called "bloodsuckers", from making huge profits from the public and inevitably affected their work, said Wang Yueping, an official with the Shanxi provincial health department.

Also, people who had been hurt by the "bloodsuckers" were reluctant to donate their blood for nothing just to make others rich.

"Learning how much their salaries were through my friend, I`ve decided that I`ll never donate my blood again," posted a netizen named "Yuexianzhe" on the websiteof xici.net.

"How could they make money through the blood people donated with pure love?" "Yuexianzhe" asked.

Observers note that more measures should have been taken to increase blood donations when the blood supply dropped. The demand, however, was soaring, which also worsened the blood crisis, said Wang.

"As most peasants have now joined the rural medical insurance, they are more likely to go to hospitals for treatment and have surgery, rather than go to rural clinics, as in the past," he said.

This is possibly the reason why, by September, the amount of blood used in Shanxi Province increased 15 percent year on year, Wang said.

In addition, as university students were the main source of blood donors, standing at 50 percent, shortages also occurred every year during summer and winter vacations, said Ouyang Jinqiao with the Jiangxi Provincial Blood Center.

To fight the crisis, Ouyang said nurses were encouraged to donate blood in the province for the sake of being less dependent upon students.

Also, he suggested China`s blood donation law should be revised.

"Free blood donors and their families are entitled to use certain blood for free during surgery, but according to the law they have to first pay before being reimbursed, the process of which is very complicated in China," Ouyang said.

"The law was enacted 12 years ago and it needs revision to attract more people to join as donors," he added.