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Shortage of blood in Pune hospitals needs to be addressed, say experts
A staff from Sassoon hospital said on the condition of anonymity that there is a shortage of B positive and B negative blood groups
A 34-year-old’s death at Sassoon General Hospital due to a shortage of type B blood has prompted two blood banks in the city to begin blood donation drives. The exercise will be carried out to meet the rising blood requirements across city hospitals.
The Janakalyan blood bank and the Sassoon blood bank are now among those who have started blood donation drives to meet the shortfall in blood in blood banks.
Atul Kulkarni, director of Jankalyan Blood Bank from Pune said, “We are now planning to start blood donation drives from this weekend as per the guidelines given by the state government. All the necessary safety precautions and social distancing will be kept during these drives.”
A staff from Sassoon hospital said on the condition of anonymity that there is a shortage of B positive and B negative blood groups.
“Barring this, we have storage of all other blood groups. We are therefore organising special blood donation camps, and trying to get as many blood donors as possible to address this shortage. The demand for these blood groups is more from non-Covid patients. We, therefore, appeal to the public to please come forward and donate blood to help the needy patients and save their lives,” he said.
The HT team contacted Sassoon hospital’s dean Dr Murlidhar Tambe with repeated calls and messages for a response on the story but there was no revert.
Over the last few days, blood donation camps have been organised inside Sassoon to increase the supply of blood groups in the blood bank.
Pune-based philanthropist Shantilal Muttha, founder, Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana, had initiated a statewide blood donation drive through 11 mobile van clinics that conducted a statewide blood donation drive. Through this drive, the organisation collected a total of 4,148 blood packets until May 14 from across the state.
“It is unfortunate that someone died due to not getting blood in time. This is the major issue we are going to face once the lockdown ends. Thousands of surgeries that are on hold will be performed and hospitals will require blood in large quantities. We have taken blood donation camps across the state but the problem of storage of blood has emerged,” Muttha said.
According to Muttha, once the storage issues are addressed his organisation will begin blood-donation camps, once again.
