Hundreds of units of life-saving blood are rendered waste in many of the blood banks, at a time when the state is grappling with the problem of low rate of voluntary blood donation. The reasons: poor storage facilities and lack of blood component separation units.
While the prominent blood banks in the state, particularly those attached to top medical institutions, have state-of-the-art facilities, many of the taluk and district-level hospitals are yet to install equipment for storage and separation of blood components.
The recent episode in the Thiruvanathapuram General Hospital, in which 100s of units of blood were discarded because of erratic power supply, highlighted the seriousness of the situation, and raised questions about the manner in which blood banks were undertaking their tasks.
“Similar cases are taking place in various blood banks across the state, but most of these go unreported. It is a criminal waste,” said an official.
What has aggravated the problem is the shortage of staff at the Drugs Control Department and the Kerala State Blood Transfusion Council. Less than a dozen staff members are entrusted with the enormous task of enforcing quality control across 164 private and 33 government blood banks.
The efforts to increase voluntary blood donation have not yielded results, with the annual voluntary blood donation in the state remaining at a much lower level, compared to other states.
While the state at the moment is just about managing with 3.5 lakh units of blood, states like West Bengal are far ahead, recording 70 to 80 per cent voluntary blood donation. This is followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat.
“We are soon going to launch blood component separation facility in hospitals in Thiruvanantha-
puram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Manjeri and Mananthavady,'' said an official of the blood transfusion council.
He said blood storage facilities would be provided at 34 more delivery centres to ensure timely support for pregnant women.