Fear of wastage emerges as another blood donation drive is announced

Mumbai: A mega blood donation drive has been announced to celebrate chief minister Eknath Shinde’s birthday on Thursday

Mumbai: A mega blood donation drive has been announced to celebrate chief minister Eknath Shinde’s birthday on Thursday. However, the blood banks said that they had only recently, on Republic Day, organised such a drive and another one in quick succession may lead to wastage.

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Blood banks across the state have been asked by the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) to hold blood donation camps. The circular issued by SBTC on February 6 has asked both private and public blood banks in the state to hold mega blood donation camps with the help of local NGOs and community-based organisations.

The blood banks are having reservations about the latest circular. “It is within less than two weeks’ time that we are asked to hold another mega blood donation camp. We already have enough blood and organising a mega camp at such quick succession will only lead to wastage,” said a blood bank official from one of the BMC blood banks.

The whole blood and most of the other blood components have a shelf life of up to 45 days.

Most of the blood banks are holding internal blood donation camps instead of going into the community.

While the circular does not mention the reason behind the order to hold mega blood donation camps, a senior health official said it is because of the chief minister’s birthday and the decision was taken in less than a week’s time.

“We had a meeting about five to six days back and decided to hold a blood donation camp since it is the chief minister’s birthday. We generally hold mega blood camps on occasions like Republic Day, Independence Day, etc. Such occasions motivate people to participate and voluntarily donate blood,” said the official.

“The intention is noble but we need such camps during the crisis that we face in summer vacations and during the festival period. Since we held community blood donation camps on January 26, we are holding internal blood donation camp for our staffs,” said another blood bank official from a trust-run hospital.

Dr Swapnil Lale, director of health services said the blood banks that do not have sufficient blood should hold the mega camp.

Vikas Vira, NGO Tarun Mitra Mandal, which helps organise mega blood donation camps for the blood banks said it is too short a notice for the blood banks to organise camps.

“They organise blood donation camps with our help. It is too short a notice for them to reach out to NGOs and community organisations like us,” he said. He added mega blood donation camps should be organised well in advance.

“It should be well planned and we need to have a sustainable model of blood donation instead of having a one-day mega blood donation camp. We need to have a calendar for entire year so that there is no excess collection on a day and other days we do not face shortage,” said Vira.