Blood Program

A new program, expected to end past rivalry in recruiting blood donors, has been jointly organized by the American Red Cross and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the oldest and largest Harvard affiliated teaching hospital.

The agreement will unify Massachusetts' blood-gathering process into one coordinated effort and comes after months of negotiations between the two health institutions.

"Prior to the agreement, there were several years of competition between MGH and the Red Cross in their blood-collecting programs," Dr. Douglas Surgenor, president of the north-east division of the Red Cross and visiting professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, said yesterday. "It was an almost hurtful competitiveness marked by practically no communication," he added.

Dr. Surgenor said that the reason a cooperative program was not introduced sooner was that the "right people were not on the scene."

Charles E. Huggins, the chief negotiator for MGH and associate professor of Surgery at the Medical School, said that a "difference in philosophies" had been the obstacle in reaching a joint program.