Blood Donation

Friends, we all must  have gone through the experience of when your near and dear one is admitted to hospital for some surgery, or is involved in accident and has lost lots of blood. First thing the medical staff of hospital informs the patient’s relatives or friends that arrange for so many units of blood from the blood bank of the hospital or from private blood banks. Most of the times the blood banks have the required group blood, but before issuing the blood they ask the concerned persons to arrange for donors to replace the blood. This practice of asking blood replacement is going on for decades  in all of the blood banks across the country.

The family of the patients continue to suffer under the coercive demands of the blood banks and the hospitals that are treating patient. They continue to be blackmailed and harassed into getting blood donors.

The National Blood Policy was formulated in 2002 and amended in 2007, which prohibited the hospitals and the blood banks to ask for the blood replacement from patient’s relatives and friends. But in practice, generally this policy is not followed and replacement blood is asked for. The national Blood Policy states that replacement blood donation should be phased out gradually. But from 2007 till date this policy is not followed strictly and patient’s relative are harassed. As per this policy 100% voluntary, non-remunerated donation of blood should be the aim of all the hospitals and blood banks.

The policy recommends and mandates that the hospitals and blood banks periodically arrange blood donation camps, to augment their blood stocks. Blood donated by voluntary non-remunerated blood donors is the safest. It is high time that the onus of organizing blood products is shifted from the patient’s relatives to the hospital. Sufficient blood should be collected, tested, and be kept ready well in advance. The family of the patient should not be involved in the process of organizing for the blood. This is the case in most countries which have a well established blood donation program. The government has formulated the blood policy, but it is high time now they must intervene and stop the practice of blood banks asking the patient’s family to bring in blood donors.

In fact, the reality is majority of the hospital based blood banks do not put effort to participate in voluntary blood donation camps, and at the same time they do not accept blood units donated by voluntary blood donors from other blood banks. The demand for replacement blood units is making it impossible for large number of patients to receive blood from truly voluntary non–remunerated blood donors, and thus voluntary blood donation movement is being suppressed from being able to ensure blood for all. It has become necessary that the regulatory bodies should take preventive steps to systematically eliminate replacement blood collection. They should see that

• Each hospital must be made to publicly disclose the collection of blood from truly voluntary blood donors versus blood donors who have been forced to donate because the hospital asked the family to organize donors.
• Each blood bank must be asked to share a plan on how they are going to move from the current level or replacement donation to zero replacement in a time bound manner and reporting of this should be integrated with the existing systems of monitoring blood banking.
• There should be clear message from National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC), State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) and other regulatory bodies strongly condemning, discouraging and whatever possible legally limiting the process of replacement blood donation.

Last week, the SBTC pulled up four hospitals in Mumbai for largely depending on replacement donors, and gave them three months’ time to change this pattern or face action. The  four hospitals are Nanavati, Saifee, Prince Aly Khan and Fortis Raheja, these hospitals were entirely dependent on replacement donors. The spoke person of SBTC further added, that these hospitals have been asked to organize more blood donation camps. Circulars have been sent to all other individual blood banks and those attached to hospitals as well.

If the government fails to offer protection to patients and allow unrestricted exploitation of the patients-it will cause serious and irreversible damage to the voluntary blood donation movement. In fact government should go all out in encouraging young persons who are above 18 years and below 45 years of age to come forward voluntarily to donate blood, as within few days of blood donation, body replaces the lost fluids, and after two weeks the body replaces the lost red blood cells.

Waiting for your views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

5^th September 2022