The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna (AIIMS-P), will have to wait before it can commence blood banking services, a prerequisite to perform major surgeries.
The Central licensing approving authority, under the ministry of health, held back grant of licence for operation of blood bank, processing of whole human blood for component and manufacture of blood products, after it noticed infrastructure deficiencies during inspection on November 8.
A member of the three-man Central committee, requesting anonymity on the pretext that he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Hindustan Times that the deficiencies pertained to manpower, equipment and structure.
“The AIIMS lacks qualified manpower, desirably from pathology, to run the blood bank. The lone senior resident is on contract against requirement of a regular staff. Besides, it lacks some equipment, like the coagulometer, which is a medical laboratory analyser for testing of hemostasis system — a process which causes bleeding to stop and is considered to be the first stage of wound healing,” he said.
“We also pointed out some structural changes, besides having washable walls at the blood bank,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“We also pointed out some structural changes, besides having washable walls at the blood bank,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}The shortcomings reflect poorly on the institute, especially when Union minister of state for health Ashwini Kumar Choubey reportedly claimed to have directed the AIIMS-Delhi to redirect patients from Bihar to AIIMS-Patna in order to avoid overcrowding there.
READ| Choubey: AIIMS-Patna to be fully functional by 2020; seeks land for second institute
Interestingly, only routine cases are taken up at AIIMS-Patna, as it presently does not offer trauma and emergency services. The AIIMS has only 180 in-patient admission beds, against a sanctioned strength of 1,000, to cater to an average daily patient footfall of 1600-1800. Infrastructure deficiencies do not permit major surgeries, even as 3,900 operations were performed in 2016-17. Besides, it has only four functional operation theatres (OTs) against 28 approved.
AIIMS-Patna director Dr PK Singh said, “I have spoken to the authorities concerned and they have assured us to grant the licence for blood bank as soon as we address the deficiencies pointed out. We hope to address them within the next 2-3 months.”
“We have initiated procurement process for equipment. We are in the process of recruiting 100-120 faculty members, who should be in place by December-January. We will then commence the department of transfusion medicine and blood bank,” he added.
As for the hospital, Dr Singh said, “We will have all our 28 OTs ready by June and hope the hospital to be fully functional by July 2018.”
Regular MBBS batches started at AIIMS-Patna since 2012, which is when its hospital was supposed to have been ready.