After 10 years, Pune district’s metro blood bank gets licences to function

The Pune metro blood bank will start functioning from next week, serving as a central point for processing of blood components for the district

The state-of-the-art metro blood bank at Aundh District Hospital (ADH) campus received the licence to function from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday.

Over the years, only the blood banks at Pune and two other districts were stuck to get approvals (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Part of the state government’s project launched in January 2012, such blood banks were planned at Pune, Thane, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Amravati, Nagpur, Parbhani, Satara, Chandrapur and Jalgaon by the state blood transfusion council (SBTC). Over the years, only the blood banks at Pune and two other districts were stuck to get approvals.

The Pune metro blood bank will start functioning from next week, serving as a central point for processing of blood components for the district, said officials.

The facility will provide concentrated human red blood corpuscles, platelet, single donor platelet, fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitated antihemophilic factors for patients across the district. For the past ten years, the facility, considered as the mother blood bank, has been only collecting and providing whole blood.

Dr Nagnath Yempalay, civil surgeon, Pune district and head of ADH, said, “The plan was stuck in approvals and compliances for over a decade. After taking charge of ADH, I decided to make the blood bank function as it was affecting other similar facilities in the district. After a series of inspections, meetings and compliances, CDSCO and FDA gave the permit licences on September 1.”