Government Blood Bank Runs Dry

The government blood bank in the Sadar Hospital in Daltonganj is suffering from an acute shortage of blood and there is not much hope for an improvement in the situation in the near future.

The technical staff at the blood bank are regularly coerced by attendants of patients to give blood without adhering to the replacement norm.

According to the rule, if someone requires one unit of blood, he needs to replace it with a unit to allow the bank to sustain itself.

“Since our health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi comes from Palamau, some of the patient’s relatives threaten to get us dismissed from job if we don’t give blood without asking for replacement,” Anand Mohan Chandra, technical in-charge of the blood bank, said on Wednesday.

Medical in-charge of this blood bank Rajesh Kumar said many took away blood by flaunting their connections with those in power.

“The poor with no connections with the high and the mighty are the real sufferers even though they follow the rule,” he added.

He said blood donation by women was poor in Palamau. Women with haemoglobin levels below 11 are advised against donating blood.

The demand-supply gap is further widened by the fact that victims of road accidents and gun attacks and cops and rebels injured in encounters are kept out of the ambit of mandatory replacement.

There blood bank had 42 units of blood when this reporter visited it on Wednesday.

However, Palamau civil surgeon Kalanand Mishra has a different take on the shortage of blood.

“Our Daltonganj government blood bank caters to patients of sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia of two more districts – Latehar and Gar-hwa – besides Palamau. Therefore, the supply can’t match up to the demand as the collection of blood by way of donation is not enough,” he said.

According to Chandra, there are more than two dozen outfits that conduct blood donation camps Palamau. The latest to join the brigade is Yogi Sena, which donated eight units recently.

“Till August 8, only two camps were held in Palamau,” Chandra said.

Till February this year, the Red Cross Society used to arrange blood donation camps for replenishing the blood bank.

“In February, we got a letter from Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society (JSACS) that disengaged Red Cross Society from this work. So Red Cross Society is no longer involved in blood collection. It only creates awareness on donation,” secretary of Palamau Red Cross Society Satyajit Gupta said. – Telegraph India