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Blood bank system needs an overhaul

Last Updated 19 February 2020, 19:43 IST

The working of blood banks in the country has long been riddled with problems related to poor standards, inefficiency, corruption and other ills. A good blood bank system is the lifeline of a modern healthcare system but in India it is one of the factors that contribute to the weakening of the system. The inadequacies of the blood transfusion system have regularly come into the public arena through reports of loss of lives, medical complications and other problems caused by lack of timely availability or wrong handling of blood and violation of rules and regulations. The medical fraternity and others have often brought the matter to the government’s attention. The Supreme Court has issued directives and made suggestions to improve the system, but the situation has hardly improved. The matter was again brought to the attention of the court recently and it has issued notices to the government.

A petition in the court has sought steps to regulate the blood storage system. Though the National Blood Transfusion Council (NTBC) was set up after the Supreme Court had suggested enactment of a separate law to regulate the operation of blood banks, services related to transfusion are still governed by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The situation that exists now is alarming. Many stand-alone blood banks have come up and they offer poor services and products and fleece patients. Some of them are not even registered. It is extremely difficult for patients to get blood, and unscrupulous operators and middlemen have a field day. Even doctors are sometimes seen to have links with them. It has been pointed out that the government has failed to provide blood transfusion services to the rural areas, and these are inadequate in urban areas.

There are only three, or in many parts of the country fewer, registered blood banks for every million people. This is grossly inadequate. The NTBC guidelines on storage units are not followed. Blood banks need to be set up in all district hospitals. There are 81 districts in the country which lack a single functioning blood bank. There is also the need to provide the blood banks with adequate infrastructure and trained manpower. There has been a demand for a separate monitoring body under the Union health ministry for all purposes related to blood collection, storage and transfusion. Most issues highlighted in the petition are well known. The measures sought by the petitioners are also not new. There are often calls to increase public awareness about the need to donate blood. But improving the system to collect and store blood and to make it available to the needy in time is equally, and in fact, more important.

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(Published 19 February 2020, 17:50 IST)

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