‘Blood-on-call’ service to be extended to entire state

“Relatives or friends of a patient needing blood will have to dial ‘102’. Blood from state-run blood banks will be transported on a motorcycle fitted with ice boxes to the hospital where the blood is needed,” said a senior official from the public health department.

There are 134 blood storage units and 291 blood banks in the state. Seventy-eight blood banks belong to the state government and municipalities. The Red Cross Society has 12,while 183 belong to various trusts and NGOs and 18 are private. There are 199 blood component separation centres in the state.

While blood donation in Maharashtra was 13 lakh units last year — amongst the highest in the country — timely utilisation during emergencies has been rather low,the official admitted.

Health minister Suresh Shetty said,“This will bring down cases of malpractice by private hospitals and blood banks that over-charge in case of an emergency.”

Blood supplied from government-run blood banks will be free-of-cost; only blood testing charge of Rs 450 will be levied. When private blood banks are roped in,charges will be as per those fixed by the government of India under the National Blood Policy,the official said. The helpline number and information of the scheme will be made available at all government and private hospitals. Once the request for blood is registered at the call centre at the district headquarter,the delivery person will come to the hospital,take the blood sample,go back to the blood bank and after the matching process,pouches of the required blood type will be delivered to the patient.

The transport department has recently approved the proposal to give these bikes the status of an ambulance.

A private agency has been appointed for delivery service in the two districts. It is responsible for transportation within a radius of 40 km,or up to 1-hour distance by motorcycle. About 75 per cent of blood banks in the state are located at district headquarters; of these,46 per cent are in Mumbai,Pune,Thane and Nagpur.