Mid-Day:
Mumbai: Tuesday, 29 December 2015.
A day after
mid-day revealed the sorry state of BMC's periphery hospitals struggling to
resolve the acute shortage of doctors, more data reveals how the blood banks of
eight major BMC hospitals are functioning with a massive staff shortage. The
data, accessed by a doctor through RTI, shows how the blood banks, with a total
collection capacity of 81,555 units (approximately 28,544 litres) per year are
struggling to function with merely 127 employees against the FDA standards of
222 employees, which is just 57 per cent.
These include
BTO blood transfusion officers, senior technicians and laboratory assistants
among others. More surprisingly, even after the Assistant Commissioner and
Self-licensing authority of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) notified
the Municipal Commissioner of BMC through correspondence on October 20 (mid-day
has a copy), pointing out the issue and seeking resolution, and investigating
the matter, no action has been taken till date.
Short staffed
The doctor
said that a reply to his RTI query on November 3, revealed the disproportionate
staff number in the blood banks of BMC-run hospitals.
Shortage of
BTOs in the blood banks can be seen as the most serious, as FDA norms direct
that a BTO needs to be present at the blood bank 24x7, to monitor every single
action, right from collection, grouping, cross-matching and donation of blood
and maintaining records of bags of blood collected during blood donation camps.
In the BTO's absence, a hospital's blood bank can provide blood transfusions to
in-house patients, but it is not allowed to collect additional blood bags
through camps or store new ones.
The RTI query
revealed that the blood bank of KEM Hospital, one of the busiest in the city
with a total yearly capacity of blood collection of 35,000 units (12,250
litres), is functioning with two BTOs but needs nine BTOs as per standards.
Speaking to
mid-day, the doctor said that the absence of standard number of BTOs at a blood
bank is like a pharmacy being run without a pharmacist.
"According
to the State Blood Transfusion Committee (SBTC) norms, even the smallest
possible blood bank should have at least four BTOs present. While every single
action at a blood bank is carried out under their supervision, they also have
to look after a patient who suffers reactions or other medical complications
during a transfusion. It can be fatal to have only one or two BTOs running the
busy blood banks at our civic hospitals," said the doctor.
While a
complaint filed by the doctor to FDA officials regarding the shortage of blood
bank officials propelled them into action, a letter was immediately sent to the
BMC commissioner on October 20. The letter gave the information accessed
through RTI, it also stated that recruitment of staff is the responsibility of
BMC officials, and necessary action needs to be taken to resolve the issue.
FDA speak
Talking to
mid-day, FDA Joint Commissioner (drugs) B R Masal said that while giving the
licence, they make sure that the blood banks have at least minimum staff to run
smoothly, however, if such inconsistencies are noticed, action will be taken
against the blood bank.
"Recruiting
staff members is the responsibility of BMC officials. While giving licences to
the blood banks, we make sure that they have necessary staff members. The
letter has already been sent, the matter has been investigated by FDA and we
will soon take necessary action," said Masal.
Sanjay
Deshmukh, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) was unavailable for comment
in spite of repeated attempts to contact him.
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