Thalassemia patients at receiving end of blood scarcity at main Patna hospital

Thalassemia, a treatable disorder that can be well managed with blood transfusions, is an inherited disorder caused when a body does not produce enough haemoglobin

Ruby Khatoon, a homemaker from Bihar’s Siwan, visited Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) over 130 km away on Tuesday as she has for years for the blood transfusion of her son Aman Ali, who suffers from thalassemia. She was taken aback when doctors initially asked her to arrange a donor. This was the last thing the traumatised mother expected.

PMCH has put up a notice asking attendants to get transfusions at their respective district hospitals. (HT Photo)

The doctors relented when Khatoon pleaded for one unit of blood with folded hands for her eight-year-old son but with the condition that she would not come for the transfusion again.

“The doctors initially asked me to arrange a donor. When I told them that I would not be able to as I am weak and my husband works as a migrant worker in Kolkata, the authorities asked me to visit the thalassemia centre in Muzaffarpur the next time,” said Khatoon.

Shyam Babu, 39, a private tutor from Bhojpur, echoed Khatoon, saying he too struggled for one unit of blood at PMCH for his son Anmol Raj, 14, the same day.

“I was initially asked to go to my home district to get blood. The hospital staff was rude before I begged for blood. They relented finally, and the blood transfusion was complete by 4:30pm. We arrived at the hospital at 10am on Tuesday,” said Babu.

He said they have to spend ₹600 to travel to Patna for a blood transfusion.

PMCH’s Thalassemia Centre nodal officer Anuradha Singh said they face a scarcity of A and AB-positive blood besides negative blood groups which are rare. “Unless people come forward to donate blood, we cannot maintain sufficient stock of blood.”

PMCH blood bank in charge Niharika said they last organised a blood donation camp on April 24. “There is little voluntary blood donation. It is difficult to maintain sufficient blood stocks without voluntary donation. People need to be encouraged to donate blood regularly.”

PMCH authorities have put up a notice asking attendants to get transfusions at their respective district hospitals as per the directions of the Bihar State AIDS Control Society (BSACS), which regulates blood centres in the state.

“For the convenience of the thalassemia patients, we want to make available blood in their home districts so that they do not need to come to Patna. We also want equitable distribution among such patients so that there is no clustering of patients in Patna and scarcity of blood,” said BSACS additional project director NK Gupta.

Gupta said they want thalassemia patients to first to reach out to them on 9835082934 in case of non-availability of blood in their respective districts. “We will first try to make available blood to them in their respective district, failing which we will check the availability of the blood group required before calling the patient to Patna.”

Only four of the 22 non-government blood centres in Patna contributed 544 units of the total 3,597 units of blood given to patients at the PMCH Thalassemia Centre between April 2022 to April this year.

The government has asked all the 110 blood banks in Bihar to donate at least 20 units of blood monthly to thalassemia centres.

PMCH Thalassemia Centre gets an average of 12-15 patients daily.

Thalassemia, a treatable disorder that can be well managed with blood transfusions, is an inherited disorder caused when a body does not produce enough haemoglobin.

Thalassemia patients are entitled to free blood transfusion as per the Central government’s norms.