Online,all you wanted to know about blood in Orissa

The Orissa system has been started by the National Rural Health Mission

The hunt for blood will no longer be as frantic as it usually is,if a Web-enabled system set up in Orissa serves the purpose for which it has been designed.

The e-blood bank service,which the government calls the first of its kind in the country,is built around ebloodbank.nrhmodisha.in,with real-time updates on how much of what type of blood is available in which of the blood banks in the state. A patients relative also has the option of sending an SMS or calling 1800-345-7777 toll-free for an update.

Other states have tried a e-blood bank service but Orissa officials said none has done it as comprehensively. On a similar website for Gujarat,gscbt.co.in,some of the data on Monday was from as far back as 2009.

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The Orissa system has been started by the National Rural Health Mission,Orissa,with the support of the State Blood Transfusion Council and the Odisha State AIDS Control Society. Said Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda,director of NRHM: If a particular blood group is not available at some place,we would try to transport the blood from a nearest blood bank where it is available. The system would streamline the processes.

Under the project,a brainchild of Orissa State Red Cross Society secretary Mangala Prasad Mohanty,blood bags will be bar-coded to ensure samples collected first are used first all the time,a move aimed at ensuring that blood is used before it crosses its 32-day shelf life. Officials ould be liable for an explanation if they dont stick to the FIFO (first in,first out) system.

Major blood banks will have CCTV cameras to monitor activities on their premises. The new system will also ensure there is no manual manipulation. Only blood that has tested negative in ELISA,Hepatitis B and C,syphillis and malaria tests will find their way into a blood bank, said Mohanty.

To start with,the service will link the 59 government blood banks before expanding to all 81 in the state. Currently,Orissa faces a shortfall of around 1.35-1.50 lakh units of blood (each unit is 350 ml),about 30 per cent of its annual requirement.

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Apart from digitising information at district blood banks,an online database of names,addresses and telephone numbers of voluntary donors and associations,available blood groups and components in all districts will be created under the initiative.

(With inputs from ENS,Ahmedabad)