Mumbai: Maharashtra State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) has issued an order to blood banks in the state to give them daily reports of blood collections during the blood donation camps. The circular was issued in the first week of January and only few of the blood banks in Mumbai have begun following the order. According to the SBTC authority, they issued the circular to keep a record of the number of blood units collected by each blood banks on a daily basis. They have written to blood banks across the state asking for their daily reports.
The notice was issued last week seeking to submit the report within 10 days. “The reason for taking this step is to curb the shortage of blood in the period from April to June. Usually a number of regular donors go out of Mumbai on vacation,” said a senior official. It is mandatory for blood banks across the state to inform the SBTC the blood collection after organising blood donation drives either by organising camps or calling people to the blood banks.
“In order to know the exact amount blood units available at any given time, and usage of the blood collected. The blood banks will have to give in writing, when and where they will organise the blood donation camps, the specific number of days, quantity of blood units collected per day and also giving the details of the blood groups of the donors,” said senior official rom SBTC.
They will also have to include the name of the organisers holding the camps and number of units expected to be collected. In most cases the organisers who conduct blood donation camps or drives do not inform of it to the SBTC. There are around 333 blood banks in Maharashtra, out of which, 229 blood banks are run by the charitable trusts and 75 blood banks are government run.