SMIMER tops plasma collection in the state

Surat: The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC)-run SMIMER Hospital’s blood bank on Tuesday became the highest plasma collection centre in the state, crossing the 500-mark in plasma donation collections.
According to officials, SMIMER Hospital’s blood bank received the plasma collection nod in the first week of July. A total of four blood banks, including the two hospital blood banks have received the nod for plasma collections in the city. Over 900 people have donated their plasma in the four blood banks till now and SMIMER Hospital tops the chart.
‘As on Tuesday, we have collected plasma from 507 plasma donors and we have received a tremendous response from Covid-19 recovered people turning in large numbers at the hospital’s blood bank. We have issued 673 units of plasma for therapy to private hospitals as well as for patients admitted to SMIMER Hospital,” said Dr Ankita Shah, head of immunohematology and blood transfusion (IHBT) department at SMIMER Hospital.
Shah said that initially they had to work hard to call the Covid-19 recovered patients requesting them to donate plasma.
“We have dedicated our full energy behind creating awareness about plasma donation and slowly people started coming. Moreover, employees for various diamond units came in large numbers and are donating their plasma, which made our task easy. Also, we consider every plasma donor as our ‘guest’ and therefore they come again and again,” Shah added.
“SMIMER Hospital has done a remarkable job in plasma collections and the staff worked round-the -clock to ensure that Covid-19 patients receive enough plasma for the treatment. As per our information, SMIMER became the largest plasma collection hospital in the state and credit must be given to Covid-19 recovered patients who came forward to donate it,” Puneet Nayyar, deputy conservator of forest (DCF), Surat told TOI.
Nayyar is the officer on special duty (OSD) for Covid-19 at SMIMER Hospital.