In some good news for Mumbaikars, the public health department project of providing blood units on two-wheelers is set to start August 1 after the nod from the city’s traffic department.
The blood providing service or “blood on call” was waiting for approval from the traffic department that came through last month. With the approval in hand, there will be 32 two-wheelers on the roads, that will deliver blood units to patients across the city within 30 minutes.
Its headquarters will be setup at Mahanagar Blood Bank in JJ Hospital in Byculla. In addition, there will eight more centres across the city, in various hospitals for faster delivery and logistical support, informed a senior public health department official on condition of anonymity. “The eight centres will have four two-wheelers each and the rider will be provided with a uniform, bearing the project’s logo,” the official added.
The official said, “With the current plan the motorist will have to make two trips — once to collect the sample and then come back to the centre and collect the matching blood and then to deliver. We are exploring the idea to evolve a technique by which cross matching of blood can be done through wireless mechanism and then the motorist in one trip alone will deliver the blood.”
The cross matching of blood through bar coding is prevalent in western countries. The blood sample of the patient is collected by the hospital and cross matching is done for all the 14 parameters of the blood and bar coded, and sent to the blood bank. This enables checking the availability of the matching blood in the banks and ensures quicker delivery. “This service is in practice abroad, but nowhere in India. However, there are a few software companies, which are capable of developing the mechanism and we are in talks with them,” the official added.
Currently, such a service is in place in Satara town and Sindhudurg.