Blood banks ignore order about stock update

Though the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) has made it compulsory to update stock availability status online every day, many of the blood banks in the city have failed to comply with it.

In January 2016, NBTC directed that in order to help needy patients and to avoid the frantic search for blood or donors during emergencies, all blood banks across the country have to update their stock of blood online everyday. However, most of the blood banks in the city, including the government, BMC and private-run blood banks, have not complied with the order.

A senior officer from NBTC said, “This was made compulsory so that people in emergency can find out the blood from their nearest blood bank. It has to be followed by all blood banks across the country. There shouldn’t be any exception to it.”

Highlighting the issue, Vinay Shetty from Think Foundation, an NGO that works on blood donation awareness, said that the state blood transfusion council has also a provision for real time update on its website. However, it is seldom updated by blood banks — especially those from private five-star hospitals.

“These hospitals mainly demand replacement blood (as exchange when patients need blood) so they avoid posting data of the availability of blood at public display,” Mr Shetty added.

To address the issue, NBTC had rolled out an Android app called ‘NHP Service’ (National Health Portal Service) last year with which users could find out details of blood stock in blood banks near them. However, the city blood banks that had to compulsorily provide updates about their blood stock in the app, have failed to do so.

“Soon, we will seek an update on the registration and activity of all the registered blood banks on the app. If we find banks are not following it efficiently, we will take necessary steps,” said an official from State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC).

However, Dr Zarine Bharucha, chairperson of Federation of Bombay Blood Banks (FBBB), said implementation of the programme in rural areas would be tough due to the inadequate Internet connectivity in such areas.