Blood shortage hits civil hospital's blood bank

In absence of adequate blood at the blood bank of Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital here, patients have to wait for days for blood, even in cases of emergency. The blood bank of the hospital, which is a lifeline for many patients, has been in the doldrums; thus, many patients have been left to fight for life.

In absence of adequate blood at the blood bank of Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital here, patients have to wait for days for blood, even in cases of emergency.

The blood bank of the hospital, which is a lifeline for many patients, has been in the doldrums; thus, many patients have been left to fight for life.

A patient from Hussainpura, near Ludhiana, Poonam, who underwent a hernia repair, had to wait for blood transfusion for nearly 36 hours, as the O+ve blood was not available with the civil hospital.

Ramesh Srivastava, a social worker, said on the advice of the hospital staff, they donated B+ve blood to get the desired blood group in return and also paid Rs 300 as the blood bank fee on Saturday night, but the hospital refused to provide blood on Sunday morning and asked us to arrange the blood on our own.

Srivastava said he then, along with Poonam's husband, rushed to Red Cross Society for blood, and it was transfused to the patient on Monday.

He alleged that it had become commonplace for hospital staff to make patients and attendants run around for blood, adding that consequently, underprivileged patients, like Poonam, had to suffer a lot, as they paid hefty amounts for blood outside.

Senior medical officer (SMO) Dr RK Karkara admitted the shortage of a few blood groups with the hospital. "We have acute shortage of blood groups like of O+ve for the past few days, as few donors have come forward recently. We will be organising a blood donation camp soon to deal with the shortage," Dr Karkara added.