Voluntary bodies for probe into HP blood bank system

RPMC Tanda Principal Dr Anil Chauhan said,“The 75 units that were wasted due to expiry of prescribed duration of use had come to the hospital when there were only 10 or lesser days left for expiry. Within this time,the hospital could not get donors for the matching groups. During the last one year a total of 145 units were destroyed. The hospital collected 3,230 on its own and 177 units were collected from the periphery. A total of 3,495 units of blood were issued in previous year.”

The incident has left the voluntary blood donation organisations anguished. Umaang Foundation,which works for the rights of Thalassemic children,has sought an immediate inquiry into the state’s blood bank network.

Foundation President Ajai Srivastava said,“We and our volunteers donated 900 units last year and 675 units have already been donated this year. We are in extreme shock to know that blood is being wasted in the state. We have written a letter to Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal demanding an inquiry into the matter and the installation of a proper system for networking of all blood banks in the state,so that blood demand and supply can be monitored transparently.”

Srivastava alleged that state’s two premier medical institutions in Shimla,IGMC Hospital and Kamla Nehru State Hospital for Women and Children,were not working in the best interest of patients in need of blood.

“Both the hospitals shy away from projecting the blood shortage and holding blood donation camps and poor patients from far flung places who have no one here to donate blood for replacement have to suffer. A thorough probe into the functioning and expenditure of State AIDS Control Society grants coming to these two hospitals is required,” he asserted.