A year after the National Blood Transfusion Centre (NBTC) redefined the term “voluntary donors”, ground level doctors are finding it difficult to put it into practice and want the definition to be restored to the original.
Doctors are of the opinion that because of the new definition, the collection of blood has increased only on paper, but in reality it is the same.
According to an earlier definition, a voluntary donor was the one who
donated blood at blood camps or to blood banks without expecting anything in return.
Another category was of replacement donors, who donated blood for relatives during emergencies. However, the NBTC in January 2009, decided that any family member of the patient in need of blood should be considered as a voluntary donor.
“As a result of the new definition, we compared blood collection this year with the last year’s collection and found an increase. But the truth is that, the figure was inflated by the replacement donors.
Some doctors are of the opinion that the NBTC altered the definition of voluntary donor to achieve its target of 100 per cent voluntary donors.
When contacted, Dr Sanjay Jadhav, SBTC chief, he said, “We cannot do anything about it as the decision to alter the definition was taken at the national level. Now the NBTC is planning to change the circular.”