Drug inspectors told to check free blood supply for thalassemia patients

The moves comes after the drug controller’s intervention to ensure a regular, free supply of blood for thalassemia patients

Drug inspectors in Bihar have been directed to verify the free supply of blood to patients with thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, during inspections of blood centres, officials in the state health department said on Saturday.

Drug inspectors told to check free blood supply for thalassemia patients

The instruction was issued by state drug controller Nityanand Kishloya following a meeting with in-charges of blood centres in Patna on Friday, said people familiar with the matter.

The move came after a request from Dr Anuradha Singh, nodal officer of the thalassemia day-care centre at Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), a century-old oldest state-run medical college in Bihar, seeking the drug controller’s intervention to ensure a regular, free supply of blood for thalassemia patients.

In her December 5 communication, Dr Singh said most blood centres were not voluntarily providing blood to the PMCH day-care centre, making it difficult to arrange transfusions for patients. Officials said this was the first time such a request had been made to the state drug controller for ensuring regular blood supply to a centre.

During the meeting, some blood centre in-charges said that their priority was to meet the needs of patients admitted to their own hospitals, while others expressed concerns over possible misuse of blood donated for thalassemia patients, and a few also questioned the cost involved in undertaking the mandatory tests for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Syphilis and malaria, along with determining blood group and Rh (Rhesus) factor before supply of blood.

“Supplying blood free of cost to patients with thalassemia, without seeking replacement blood, is a social cause. We will issue an advisory to all blood centres to regularly share some units they can comfortably spare with thalassemia day-care centres or provide blood directly to such patients,” said a senior official in the drug control wing. “Drug inspectors will also be tasked with checking compliance during routine inspections,” the official added.

Depending on disease severity, a thalassemia patient requires one to two units of blood (350 ml per unit) every month. The government has waived the processing charges for supplying blood to thalassemia patients. They also do not need to give replacement blood. Bihar has around 3,000 thalassemia patients, according to the state blood safety office.

The state has 128 blood centres — 78 private and 50 government-run. Patna alone has 32 blood centres, including seven in the government sector and 25 in the private sector.