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Staff shortage hits Colvin blood bank
Shocking it may sound but Moti Lal Nehru district (Colvin) Hospital may soon lose the licence to run the blood bank. After SRN Hospital, the only other government blood bank at the Colvin Hospital is run by a dermatologist who is also forced to manage the skin OPD. What sets the alarm bells ringing is that against the 30 sanctioned posts at the Colvin Hospital blood bank, only two staff have been posted.
Shocking it may sound but Moti Lal Nehru district (Colvin) Hospital may soon lose the licence to run the blood bank. After SRN Hospital, the only other government blood bank at the Colvin Hospital is run by a dermatologist who is also forced to manage the skin OPD.
What sets the alarm bells ringing is that against the 30 sanctioned posts at the Colvin Hospital blood bank, only two staff have been posted.
And incidentally both the postings have been made by ignoring all the standards and professional qualification mentioned in the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and 1945 (Schedule F part XII-b) for granting the licence to a blood
bank.
The Colvin Hospital Blood bank staff informed that as many as 30 posts have been sanctioned for the blood bank to run it all the 24-hours.
These include five posts of medical officers (with MD in pathology or transfusion medicine or five-year experience in this field), one post of senior pathologist, five posts of lab technicians (with diploma in DMLT), five posts of lab assistants, one post of junior clerk, five posts of staff nurses, five posts of wardboy-cum-sweeper, one post of generator operator, one post of public relations officer and one post of pharmacist.
But against the five sanctioned posts of MOs only skin specialist medical officer has been posted at the blood bank. Also against the five sanctioned posts only one lab assistant has been posted on contractual basis.
"A lab technician from the pathology department sometimes provides his services to the blood bank in times of emergency and heavy rush. The blood bank has the storing capacity of 350 units but due to staff crisis only six to ten units are stored to meet the hospital demand. The blood bank also closes by 4 pm due to the same factor," further informed the sources.
However, this situation emerged about two years back due to large number of transfers of medical officers posted at one place for more than 10 years. While the medical officers were transferred the joining by their relievers was delayed due to court cases and other factors. This led the Colvin Hospital administration to make some stop gap arrangements to run the essential part of the emergency service.
"The blood bank has an excellent infrastructure and 24-hour generator back-up facility, but there is no staff to run the blood bank.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines as many as 30 posts have been sanctioned for the blood bank at the hospital. But only two postings have been made in the last two years.
This makes it very difficult to run the blood bank. Being a skin specialist I also have to manage the skin OPD," said medical officer Dr AK Srivastava who has been posted at the blood bank.
Dr Srivastava said a number of official reminders and rejoinders were sent to the State government for making more postings, but to no avail.
