Dr Hedgewar Arogya Sansthan, the 200-bedded hospital in east Delhi, is in the process of upgrading facilities at its blood bank. Blood component separation equipment worth Rs 10 lakh was bought to make functioning of blood bank more effective.
So far the hospital could only provide whole blood transfusion. In many cases patients require transfusion of only specific components and not the whole blood. This equipment, Apheresis Portal will help break blood into useful components like platelets, red blood cells and different types of plasma.
"It will take a few months to start the facility. We need licenses from drug control authorities of the Central and State governments. They will conduct two rounds of inspection before giving the permission. The hospital will apply for the licenses soon," said Dr Alok Singh, in-charge, blood bank at the hospital.
The component separation technique is useful because of its multi-utility. Through this, a single unit of blood can be used for treating more than one patient. This will also reduce wastage of blood which cannot be preserved beyond 45 days, if not used.
The hospital organised a blood donation camp in collaboration with Lawrence Club in Madhu Vihar. While the donors were arranged by the club, donor screening, collection of blood and storage was carried out by the hospital.
“We collect blood from persons between age 18-60 years with a minimum of 45 kgs weight. One unit comprises of 350-450 ml of blood. For whole blood transfusion, 350 ml is the standard unit while 450 ml is used for component separation,” said Singh.
The hospital can store 600-700 units at a time.
“Blood can be preserved for 35-45 days depending on the kind of bag used. We use a bag containing anticoagulant which enhances life-span of the blood collected,” said Singh.