Blood shortage hits city hospitals in festive season, surgeries deferred

MUMBAI: In a unique social media appeal, the director of Tata Memorial Hospital Dr C S Pramesh on Saturday afternoon posted an urgent request for blood

MUMBAI: In a unique social media appeal, the director of Tata Memorial Hospital Dr C S Pramesh on Saturday afternoon posted an urgent request for blood. “Please come forward to donate blood,” he said. “If anybody or your housing societies can arrange larger blood donation camps, we can organise them on site. Your selfless gesture can help us continue services as usual at the hospital.”

Speaking to HT, Dr Pramesh said that the blood shortage had threatened to disrupt regular surgeries at his hospital. “We conduct about 35 to 40 surgeries every day,” he said. “We have managed things so far but next week could be difficult. In the coming weeks, if this shortage continues, we may not be able to do half the surgeries planned.” Dr Pramesh added that while the hospital was short on most blood groups, it was particularly short in O-positive and B-positive blood.

The doctor’s post gained huge traction, with 852 likes, over 975 retweets, and many adding to the appeals on their own X feeds. “It was an overwhelming response,” he said. “We hope to get enough blood from volunteers to be able to tide over this.” Much later, he tweeted another appeal, urging people to donate blood across the country since the blood shortage was not restricted only to Tata Memorial Hospital.

The blood shortage particularly hits children with thalassemia, who need regular blood transfusions urgently. “Major hospitals like Nair, Sion and KEM have about 300 children with thalassemia listed with them, who need blood almost every fortnight,” said Gare.

Gare said that private hospitals were not hit hard since they either got relatives to donate blood in exchange or procured it from private blood banks. However, private hospitals too reported similar issues with blood shortage. Dr Vivek Talaulikar, COO (Western Region) from Nanavati Max Hospital, admitted that surgeries had to be deferred or postponed due to the blood shortage. “We have requested our staff to donate blood besides proactively asking patients’ relatives to donate,” he said. “We are also trying to procure blood and blood products from other blood banks.”

Public hospitals are the most severely impacted, given the mammoth scale of the patients they handle. “We have about 350 children with thalassemia who need regular blood transfusions,” said an official from a children’s hospital. “We have been requesting people to donate and are just about managing. If thalassemia patients don’t get blood on time, their blood counts could drop and they might need almost double the quantity of blood to stabilise. Hence, it is important to ensure that such things don’t happen.”

An official from the blood centre at Sion Hospital said the hospital was down to its last few units of blood and was struggling to meet its daily need of 90-120 units. “We have been calling up donors,” he said. “We even tried to host a camp today but managed to collect only 14 units of blood due to a lack of response in this festive season. Being a trauma care hospital with a large number of accident cases being brought in, blood shortage adds to the difficulties.”

Dr Suhas Mohnalkar, director of the State Blood Transfusion Council, admitted that the blood shortage was across the state since blood donations had dried up due to the Diwali vacations. However, he said that available details reflected “rolling stock” which showed that blood needs were being met. “Apart from issuing an appeal for blood, hospital social workers attached to blood centres have been directed to connect with social organisations to explore opportunities for more blood donation camps,” he said. Dr Mohnalkar added that the J J Mahanagar blood bank, which was shut down by FDA due to various violations, had resumed services and was available to take blood stocks.

While blood shortage around Diwali may be an annual phenomenon, experts like Gare said the new Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) rule barring social, political or religious organisations from conducting blood camps on their own could also escalate the shortage this year, since these were major sources of blood.

“A politician’s birthday or some religious leader’s exhortation goes a long way in blood donation,” he said. “Blood centres lack the budgetary and even the organisational wherewithal to enable large-scale blood donations—they need to be backed by social organisations to get a good response.” Conventionally, blood shortage generally lasts till the end of November.

Meanwhile, Dr Pramesh posted details for those asking if they could donate on Sunday. ‘Please find details below: 15/11/2026, Sunday, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm,’ said his new post. ‘Donors are requested to come to the blood centre at the 6th Floor, Service Building, Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr E Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai 400012. Kindly enter from Service Building gate for easy access. Thank you for your support.’