Blood must be given free, says Health ministry

New Delhi  : In a bid to give relief to distressed patients and their families running around for blood, the Health Ministry has written to state governments not to charge any processing fee and instead bill the National Health Mission, the central flagship scheme, for any cost in processing of the blood.

In a letter to the states on February 7, the ministry has said that nobody should be asked to shell out money for the life-saving item from blood banks in the government sector. They should only be asked to replace the same quantity of blood by acquiring it from the donors.

While donated blood is free, there are significant costs associated with collecting, testing, preparing components, labelling, safe storing and recruiting and educating donors besides the quality assurance mandated by the National Blood Transfusion Council. The fee so charged to meet these costs varies from Rs 50 to Rs 1,050 per unit of blood in different states.

In a letter to the states, Health Additional Secretary Manoj Jhalani said that most public health facilities do not charge any cost for blood, but are collecting processing charges which should also stop. “These processing charges not only add to Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) at the point of care to patients but also discourage voluntary donation as there is a misconception that blood banks are collecting charges on blood donated free of cost.” He asked the states to seek support from the NHM whose key objective is to reduce OOPE.