Blood bank to organise more blood donation camps to tackle shortage

Looking at the shortage of blood, top officials of the state health department have instructed the state-run blood banks to carry out seven to 10 blood donation camps every month.

On Wednesday, health department officials gave out this instruction via a video conference with the medical in-charge of all the 86 government blood banks as well as the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) of all the districts. It has been decided that from Thursday onwards this rule will be implemented and in the present month only all the blood banks will organise at least three blood donation camps. The number will be between seven and 10 from May 2019.

Shortage of blood is often experienced during summer and it being the election season, the problem is even graver. The top six districts hit by blood scarcity are Malda, Murshidabad, Purulia, Darjeeling and both North and South Dinajpore. Sources said that at present there is 15 to 20 per cent deficit of supply in blood compared to the demand.

Health department officials said that several other steps were being taken to tackle with the problem. “The department will ensure that there is no shortage of kits which are required to carry out the five mandatory tests of blood so that blood arriving at blood banks could be quickly tested and handed over to patients or their family members. There will also be massive campaigning across the state about blood donation,” said a senior health official.

Explaining about the shotage of blood at this time he said that the main organisers of blood donation camps are political parties, police and different non-government organisations and as the Lok Sabha polls were underway, people associated with all the three categories were busy with the election thus the number of blood donation camps had come down ominously.

Asked then how would it be possible to conduct seven to 10 blood donation camps under the given situation health department officials said that they had had a word with the youth welfare department officials who have assured help from their network. “We use their network for tackling a dengue outbreak and now it will be used to deal with the blood shortage,” the official said and added that the youth welfare department has a list of all the clubs of the state many of which could be used for putting up blood donation camps. “We will especially stress upon clubs of those areas where poll process is over,” he added.

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