Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Wednesday, July 12, 2017.
Responding to
a RTI query, officials said that between 2012-13 and 2016-17, 1,08,75,061 units
(38,06,271 liters) of blood was collected by blood banks across India.
In the past
five years, hospitals forced more than 10 million Indians to donate blood to
compensate for transfusions given to their relatives.
Data from
National AIDS Control Society (NACO) revealed that the practice of blood
replacement asked to be phased out due to quality concerns and monetary
exploitation of patient and their relatives helped hospitals across India
collect over more than 38 lakh liters of blood.
Responding to
a Right To Information (RTI) query, NACO officials said that between 2012-13
and 2016-17, a total of 1,08,75,061 units (38,06,271 liters) of blood was
collected by blood banks across India.
Chetan
Kothari, who had filed the RTI query, said the problem areas are safety and
monetary exploitation of donors.
“When
relatives are forced to donate blood, there are chances that they will lie
about their medical condition, which hampers the blood quality. Also,
replacement blood is the highest source of contaminated blood in the country,”
said Kothari.
He added that
hospital authorities, both private and government, exhibit lethargic attitude
towards holding blood donation camps.
“There have
been instances when patient’s kin are asked to buy blood units because of
non-availability and were later asked to replace the blood used for the
patients. The guidelines for this were framed 10 years ago, owing to which
hospitals are struggling today,” said Kothari.
As per
National Blood Policy, the practice of replacement blood donors is to be phased
out to achieve 100% voluntary non-remunerable blood donation programme.
Talking to
HT, Dr Shobhini Rajan, NACO assistant director, said, “In April, we released a
notification, allowing all private and trust run hospitals in the country to
conduct blood donation camps so that they can maintain adequate blood for their
patients. It’s true that the practice of blood replacement is against the
norms, but we can’t expect the situation to change overnight.”
She added
that increasing number of patients, who depend on treatment provided by
government medical colleges in the country, is the major cause of blood banks
asking patients’ kin to donate blood.
“We are
trying to fill the vacant posts, increase blood donation drives and reduce
dependency on blood replacement so that 100% voluntary blood donation can be
achieved. It will take time. For now, all NACO supported blood banks are
collecting 60-70% of their requirement through voluntary blood donations,”
Rajan said.
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