Key blood banks in Patna face shortage

PATNA Major blood banks in Patna are facing shortage of blood as voluntary donors are difficult to come by during the times of coronavirus

PATNA

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Major blood banks in Patna are facing shortage of blood as voluntary donors are difficult to come by during the times of coronavirus.

The Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Institute (IGIMS) and the Jaiprabha Model blood bank are facing acute shortage of negative blood groups.

The saving grace for them, however, is that the demand for blood has gone down, as most elective surgeries have been deferred during the pandemic. Surgeries are being done only in emergency cases and delivery, say doctors.

The inventory at the Jaiprabha blood bank Wednesday morning showed the stock of O-negative, A-negative and A-positive had exhausted, while there was one unit each of B-negative, AB-negative and AB-positive.

“No blood of AB-negative group is available at the PMCH, while the negative blood group stock was in single-digit,” said Dr Rabindra Nath Shukla, in-charge of the PMCH blood bank.

Barring having four units of O-negative, there was no stock of negative blood group available at the NMCH, said its blood bank in-charge Dr CK Narayan.

No negative blood group was available at the IGIMS, while positive blood groups were available in single-digit. The 50-60 units of O+ blood group contributed to the total stock of 80 units at the blood bank.

The thalassemic and HIV patients are the ones facing the problem. No blood bank is supposed to ask for replacement blood from these two categories of patients. Now, with low availability of blood, thalassemic and HIV patients, who need to be transfused blood, are facing a harrowing time.

With voluntary donation camps having come to a grinding halt since the onset of the second wave of the pandemic in March this year, the stock was low at most of the blood banks.

Government officials at the State Health Society, Bihar, and the Bihar State AIDS Control Society, however, said there was no shortage of blood as its demand had gone down substantially because fewer surgeries were being done during the pandemic.

“We have blood to meet our immediate requirement though the inventory doesn’t look healthy. You cannot store blood beyond 35-42 days in case of whole blood and packet red blood cell (PRBC), prepared by removing plasma from whole blood, to transfuse in patients with anaemia. Platelets have a shelf life of five days only while fresh frozen plasma can be stored up to one year. So, we have just enough to meet our requirement,” said the officer.

The demand for blood has dipped by almost 90% at each of these hospitals. For instance, the IGIMS, which earlier required up to 60 units of blood every day, now requires barely four unit of blood every day.

Similarly, the NMCH, which used to have blood demand up to 20 units per day, now requires 2 units. Both, the IGIMS and the NMCH are now dedicated Covid-19 hospitals.

The PMCH had up to 50 units consumption, which had now gone down to around 15-20 units, said doctors.

Middlemen, with the nexus of blood bank staff, had brought disrepute to some of these blood banks. The one at the PMCH was in the news recently over alleged blackmarketing of blood.

Insiders attributed the nefarious activities to shortage of doctors, which left most blood banks in Patna, including the one at PMCH, at the mercy of lowly-paid staff in the evening, encouraging them to manipulate inventory for pecuniary gains.

Bihar has 93 blood banks of which 37 are government and six under Red Cross. The remaining are under private sector.