Blood now free of cost in Punjab hospitals

Blood, platelet rich plasma and other components of blood will be provided free of cost in government hospitals across Punjab from Tuesday onwards.

Availability of blood will also now be round the clock in all hospitals. Thousands of patients across the state, who earlier had to pay processing charges of Rs 300 per unit of blood in civil hospitals and Rs 500 per unit in Government Medical Colleges, will now have relief.

it will benefit in many cases where critical care needed for patients in surgical cases and multiple units of blood were needed that would cause an excessive financial burden, especially on the poor.

Health and family welfare minister Brahm Mohindra on Tuesday said the decision has been taken as part of “Tandarust (healthy) Punjab’ mission. From now, blood and blood components like Packed RBC, Fresh Frozen Plasma, Cryoprecipitate, Platelets rich plasma and Platelet concentrate will all be given free of cost to all the patients. “This decision will help the poor and downtrodden section of the society,” the minister said.

The blood, he said, is the first important requirement in case of the road accidents or for patients undergoing surgeries. Punjab has a total of 116 blood banks out of which 46 are being operated by the government, 6 by the Military and 64 by private entities.

Last year 2.26 lakh units of blood were collected by government blood banks. The health department had earlier launched a web portal ‘ e-Raktkosh’. This web facility would act as a guiding source for all the needy persons to check the availability of a particular blood group and blood components and its quantity in a particular blood bank.