Apolitical bodies to help with blood donation

Statesman News Service

MALDA, March 9: Malda district hospital authorities have planned to organise blood donation camps soon to meet the acute shortage of blood, albeit with the help of apolitical organisations.

“Generally we face shortage of blood during summer, particularly during elections because people are busy with election campaigns and are unable to organise voluntary blood donation camps,” said Dr A Roy, superintendent of Malda district hospital.

“We have thus decided to organise blood donation camps with the help of apolitical organisations here to tackle the crisis,” said Dr Roy.

Dr Roy admitted that the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), which contributes a major share of blood in government blood banks, organising camps throughout the year, is not at present in a position to carry out the programme successfully.

“So, we need to adopt a policy of exchange when some one will seek blood from our bank this time,” Dr Roy said.

To maintain adequate stock of blood, the Malda Blood Bank had to requisition 200 units from Balurghat in South Dinajpur; of the quantity asked for, only 130 units were received a few days ago.

At present, the stock of blood in Malda Blood Bank is nearly 700 units and average requirement of blood in the district is 60 units per day including the requirements of emergency cases and thalassaemia patients.

A total of 65 thalassaemia patients, including those from other districts, depend on the blood bank at Malda district hospital.

Besides the district hospital, there are 22 nursing homes, where the average rate of consumption of blood is 45 to 50 units per day.

Due to the current crisis, thalassaemia patients are getting one unit of blood instead of the two units they used to get earlier.

Two nursing homes in Malda are facing difficulties in providing dialysis to thalassaemia patients, who come from outside Malda district.

Fearing a crisis in the next two months due to the Lok Sabha elections, Malda District Voluntary Blood Donors’ Forum (MDVBDF) has already planned to organise mobile blood donation camps across the district soon with the help other NGOs. (END)