Shimla: A city based NGO has claimed that thirty-one units of blood at the blood bank unit of Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital was destroyed in May because it was not used before it got expired.
Ajai Srivastava, Chairman of Umang Foundation, claimed that “As per the information procured through RTI, the DDU hospital blood bank destroyed as many as 31 units of blood, including 7 units on May 4, 5 units on May 13, 9 units on May 16 and 10 units on May 20, which was left to expire and discarded in the month of May and not transferred to blood bank of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC),”
Srivastava claimed the blood discarded on May 13 and May 16 was wrongly marked as ‘quantity not sufficient’ in the disposal register. The blood was 35 days old, and as per the standard practice, the blood bags with insufficient quantity are supposed to be discarded immediately and not kept until it gets expired. The blood bank made wrong entries in the register in order to conceal the facts, he further alleged.
He alleged the Directorate of Health and in-charge of DDU hospital blood bank were trying to hush up the matter and asked Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to immediately order high level enquiry into the matter.
Srivastava demanded to convert the blood banks at DDU hospital and Kamla Nehru Hospital into blood-storage centres and shift the staff to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Blood Bank. He said that there is no rationale to run two small separate blood banks in the town. Instead, the government should strengthen the IGMC blood bank which can easily cater the needs of DDU Hospital and Kamla Nehru Hospital through the storage centres.
The average blood consumption of DDU hospital is about 32 units per month, while the consumption at Kamla Nehru is about 170 units. However, the consumption at IGMC is more than 1250 units in a month and its blood bank is under-staffed.
“The act of DDU Blood Bank is a blot on the blood banking system and a great setback to voluntary blood donation movement,” he added.
Repudiating the allegations, a spokesperson of Health Department has claimed that only two units blood was removed on account of being Lipemic and nothing more was discarded during the month of June till now. Officer, in a press clarification, claimed that blood was discarded after following the complete procedure under Biomedical Waste Management Rules.
